THE 
 
 REPEALER 
 
 REPULSED! 
 
THE REPEALER REPULSED! 
 
 A CORRECT NARRATIVE 
 
 or 
 
 THE RISE AND PROGRESS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 REPEAL INVASION OF ULSTER : 
 
 DR. COOKE'S CHALLENGE 
 
 AND 
 
 MR. O'CONNELL'S 
 DECLINATURE, TACTICS, AND FLIGHT. 
 
 wiTir 
 
 APPROPRIATE POETICAL AND PICTORIAL ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 ALSO, 
 
 AN AUTHENTIC REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 GREAT CONSERVATIVE DEMONSTRATIONS, 
 
 IN BELFAST, 
 
 ON THE 2lsT AND 23d OF JANUARY, 18tl. 
 
 " Belfast is the seat of the greatest criminality in Irelanil." — "Sh. O'CoNNELt, out of Belfast 
 '' I love the black North." •' The lovely and the goo<i of lielfast." — 
 
 Mr. O'CoNNEl.T., in Belfast. 
 
 BELFAST : 
 
 WILLL\M M'COMB, 1, HIGH-STREET ; 
 
 DUBt.IN', W. CirURY, JU.V., AND CO., J. ROBERTSON; DEaRV, MRS. CAMTBELLj 
 
 EDINBURGH, J. JOHNSTONE, JAS. GALL AVD SONS; GLASGOW, \VM. COILINS, 
 
 D. EI'.YCE; LONDON, NISBETAND CO.; MANCHESTER, GAIT 
 
 AND ANDLllKON ; LIVERPOOL, J. PEHRIS. 
 
 isn. 
 
,Hf 
 
NARRATIVE 
 
 OF 
 
 THE REPEAL INVASION, &c. 
 
 The circumstances under which the late Repeal visit of Mr. O'Con- 
 aell to the North has been ir.ade, are so peculiar, and the event Itself 
 constitutes so important an era in the modern history of Ireland, that 
 an explanatory introduction is essentially requisite, before we proceed 
 to a statement of the details, which it is the object of our publication 
 to furnish. Some newspaper writers have compared O'Connell's mis- 
 sion, to the hostile invasion of Belfast, by Sir Phelim O'Neill, during 
 the rebellion of 1641, and which terminated in his signal discomfiture 
 at Lisburn, then called Lisnagarvey ; but this is, in many respects, a 
 forced comparison. O'Connell is not a man of war in the personal 
 acceptation of the term, and whatever may be his g'eneral delinquen- 
 cies, martial daring would be unjustly reckoned amongst their number. 
 In this respect, he cannot be fairly classed with the chieftain of Ben- 
 burb ; and we must, therefore, seek amongst the records of other Anti- 
 British movements, for a character or characters, with whose mischiev- 
 ous activities the recent agitation tour of O'Connell to this part of 
 Ireland, may be properly brought into comparison. 
 
 On Wednesday, the 11th of October, in the year 1791, the cele- 
 brated Theobald Wolfe Tone, made his first entry into Belfast, and it 
 is a circumstance worth noting, that on the following day, Thursday, 
 October 12, he was introduced to, and dined with W. Sinclair, Esq., 
 own brother to the indentical chairman of the Repeal Meeting, which 
 was lately held, by substitution, in the vicinity of the Royal Hotel, of 
 which meeting, a detailed report shall, in its proper place, be laid be- 
 fore our readers. In the mean time, it is important to observe, that, 
 Tone did not visit " Blefescu" as he hieroglyphically denominates Bel- 
 fast, in the character of a revolutionist — far from it — he came merely 
 as the paid Secretary of the " Catholic Committee" in Dublin, and as 
 the accredited agent of " peaceful and constitutional agitation" in the 
 North. But history has recorded the ultimate effects of his ostensibly 
 tranquil mission, and that reader must be deplorably wanting in the 
 attribute of perspicacity, who does not immediately recognize the para- 
 llelism between his professions, and those of O'Connell, on the occasion 
 which we have chiefly in view. This allowance, however, must be 
 made, that when a case of extremity had arisen. Tone proved himself 
 to be a soldier — his prototype from Kerry does not advance any claim 
 to a character so I'espectable. The main point to be observed is, that 
 both were salaried missionaries of Irish Roman Catholicism, and that 
 both affected devotion to objects strictly constitutional, while the career 
 of the one is now no longer concealed, but stands broadly prominent in 
 his own autobiographical sketches, and the other habitually exhorts 
 his minions to " strike the blow," reminding them, with more of Scotch 
 caution, than of Milesian chivalry, that it must be done by '■ t.her>>- 
 selves," 
 
 
The attempted introduction of the Repeal agitation into Ulster, un- 
 folds a system of curious, and on general principles, not very explicable 
 policy. When Mr. ( )'ConnelI, some years ago, in Drogheda, toasted 
 the " Immortal memory," in a tumbler-full if actual Boyne water, it 
 was easy to see that his object was to conciliate even the most ultra 
 classes of Protestants, by practically shewing that he could, if necessary, 
 assume for the time all the external symbols of confirmed orangeism. 
 This was a policy which we can understand — its aims were patent to 
 the humblest capacity — but of the system finally adopted, an explana- 
 tion must be sought amongst the hidden archives of the Vatican, since 
 fallible wisdom is scarcely adequate to its rational exposition. That 
 Repeal is essentially a Roman Catholic interest, no one can doubt — its 
 object and intended efi'ect are to give Irish Roman Catholics an ascend- 
 ant preponderance in the councils of the state ; and, of course, to depress 
 Protestants in a civil point of view, to the level of their numbers, as 
 compared with the bulk of the general population. The demand for 
 household, and even for universal suffrage, Avhich is concurrent with 
 the agitation of Repeal, abundantly proves that the advocates of the 
 latter measure, look mainly to the counting of heads in their contemp- 
 lated re-organization of Ireland, as a kingdom;, distinct from, though 
 nominally dependent upon. Great Britain. If a numerical majority is 
 to rule the destmies of this country, without any counteracting in- 
 fluence arising from comjiarative property, or the expediencies neces- 
 sarily generated by imperial, as distinguished from, while it is not 
 opposed to, local interests, then is it evident that Roman Catholicism 
 must triumph in the exclusive ascendancy of its professors, and, that 
 Protestantism must suffer in proportion. We are not now arguing au 
 abstract point — we are simply reasoning from an acknowledged fact — 
 and the inevitable conclusion is, that Roman Catholics are the only 
 religious party in this country, who could possibly be invested with 
 superior power and importance, in consequence of a Repeal of the Le- 
 gislative Union between Great Britain and Ireland — just, because, they 
 constitute the more numerous class of the community. It is then quite 
 consistent with human nature in its selfish aspects, that Roman Catho- 
 lics should seek foi* their own corporate elevation ; bvit equally consis- 
 tent, is it with equity and justice that the adherents of a different, and, 
 as they themselves believe, a purer faith, while they accord to their 
 opponents their fair share of social and civil privileges, should, never- 
 theless, have an ultimate regard to their own self-protection, and 
 should hesitate before confiding implicitly in the mercy of a system, 
 which punishes dissent with an eternity of exclusion from covenanted 
 mercy ; and, which through the medium of a secular interference, has 
 been the first to consecrate virtual murder under the abused name of 
 Christianity. Too much has sometimes been made of the int. lerant 
 character of the Romish system, but taking the lowest possible g. ound, 
 that even scepticism can indicate, namely — that all ascendant sects are 
 naturally prone to exclusiveness, still an unanswerable argument is 
 furnished against the adoption of a measure, which, in the nature of 
 things, must have the effect of establishing in this country a Roman 
 Catholic ascendancy. 
 
 The policy of the Court of Rome has been usually distinguished fur 
 |ts deep subtlety, and its flexible adaptation to contingent ci-rcum- 
 
stances, and wheuover a seemingly desperate measure has been resorted 
 to, a secret agency has been generally at work, preparing the way for 
 the expected issue ; but, in the case of the late invasion of the North, 
 it is impossible for human sagacity to discover the calculations on 
 which the conclave had depended. Possibly the prudential arrange- 
 ments sketched at head-quarters were over-ruled by the violence, and 
 we may add, providential indiscretion of local coteries. Be this as it 
 may, the following is a correct historical sketch of the mode in which 
 the conversion of Ulster to the doctrine of Repeal has been attempted, 
 after the Jesuitical Boyne- water drinking farce, already alluded to, had 
 failed in producing its anticipated effects. 
 
 We pass over a number of political scenes that were successively 
 enacted, all of which proved, that, while the Northerns were actuated, 
 and would abide, by principle, not even the most Radical amongst 
 them (we refer of course to men of intelligence), could be cajoled into 
 a participation in the Repeal movement ; and the celebrated Corn 
 Exchange scene of " Sharman, my jewel," effectually put an end to 
 Mr. O'Connell's hopes, if he ever seriously entertained such hopes, of 
 converting the men of the North to his insidious purposes. A new, 
 and considering that the policy had emanated from Rome, a most 
 extraordinary plan was resolved upon — it was no less than that of 
 endeavouring to proselytize Ulster to Roman Catholicism, and, failing 
 this primary object, to make the Roman Catholic community g-reater 
 bigots than even the natural tendencies of their religion, and their ha- 
 bitual association with Protestants, had previously allowed theni to be. 
 An exclusive system of education had, many years before, given sanction 
 to the general principle, and its application to other subjects was a 
 matter of no consequent difficulty. 
 
 In Belfast itself, and in the Counties adjacent to it, the friendly 
 intercourse which subsisted between Roman Catholics and Protestants 
 had rendered the former generally disinclined to the disturbance of 
 amicable relations, in whose benefits both parties equally participated, 
 while the educated, intelligent Roman Catholics looked with secret, and 
 frequently with unconcealed disgust, upon the more gross absurdities of 
 the creed to which they had been attached by the accident of birth 
 alone. This, in the estimation of the Roman Catholic Priesthood, was 
 an evil of no common magnitude, for whose prevention a remedy must 
 be instantly devised, and this remedy was found in the establishment 
 of a newspaper called the Vindicator. The wary and politic Doctor 
 Crolly had been elevated lo the Roman Catholic Primacy, and a set 
 of half-fledged Maynooth Priests succeeded to the direction of the ma- 
 chinery, which, for many years, he had plied with consummate dexterity. 
 Charged equally with the bigotry, the proverbial ignorance, and the 
 consequent self-importance of Maynooth, these worthies hit upon the 
 notable device of inflaming the sectarian passions of their own religious 
 adherents, while they scrupled not to insult the faith of all who ditt'ered 
 from them, until at length they arrived at such a pitch of audacity, as 
 to lay down the principle of numbers as the measure of civic represen- 
 tation under the New Corporation Act — exactly as we have shewn 
 that they want to do under the more extended scheme of a Repeal of 
 the Union. Roman Catholics, whether qualified or not, must be ap- 
 pointed to municipal dignities, on the sole ground of their being Roman 
 
Catholics ; and though it would have been difficult for them to find 
 amongst their whole body, so many individuals of respectability as 
 would have been equal to the number of posts demanded, yet even a 
 Hercules-street " flesher" must not be refused, should his election be 
 necessary to the completion of the list selected by the Priests. These 
 and similar indications of an aggressive spirit, quickly awakened the 
 slumbermg faculties of all classes of Protestant society, 'it was instantly 
 seen, that, unless the insolent intolerance of the Maynooth upstarts 
 were checked with some effect, the worst feelings of sectarian animosity 
 would be aroused, and that our peaceable community must soon pre- 
 sent the appearance of that most lamentable of all judicial inflictions 
 under which " every man's hand is set against his neighbour." ' 
 
 But our readers are not to suppose that political ag^'-resslon was the 
 attempt prnnarily made. No ; the direct inculcation of Popery, as a 
 system of orthodox infallibility, and the denunciation of Protestantism, 
 as the foulest of heresies, were the precursors, both of the municipal 
 sectarianism first propounded, and of the Repeal agitation by which it 
 was subsequently, but for a time hesitatingly followed. O'Connell ia 
 his letter to the, Wesleyan Methodists, adopted about the same time a 
 new character, and, concurrently with the Vindicator, appeared as a 
 virulent assailant of Protestantism in general. At tliis period he Avas 
 in London, and must have been acting under the spiritual control of 
 Dr. Wiseman, the Vicar Apostolic ; and hence we infer, that the sec- 
 tarian crusade adverted to, must have been part and parcel of a general 
 system, though its working may, ia particular districts, have fallen into 
 the hands of persons, who, like their Scriptural class-fellow, cast about 
 only "firebrands, arrows, and death," to themselves as well as their 
 neighbours, while they imagine that they are only indulging in a piece 
 of harmless, and possibly beneficial " sport" to their ecclesiastical 
 mother. 
 
 The appearance of Mr. O'Connell in the new, and, for a professed 
 patriot, unnatural character of a " loathsome Theologue," produced 
 an universal sensation, and many liberal Protestants, who, in despite 
 of his previous inconsistencies, still felt a lingering regard for his po- 
 litical fame, were desirous of attributing his conduct, in this instance, 
 to one of those cometic aberrations to which great minds are said to 
 be occasionally subject. The men who thought so were quickly made 
 sensible of their error, as the sectarian Priests of the Vindicator knew 
 their man better, and accordingly they increased in the violence of 
 their tone, and the arrogance of their assumptions, until a laro-e body 
 of the educated and respectable portion of the Roman Catholic^s them- 
 selves became so thoroughly disgusted with the exclusive journalism 
 of the Vindicator, that they drew up and signed a respectfu'l, but firm 
 PROTEST, against the intolerant doctrines which had been put forth. 
 They had lived— many of them from infancy— amongst Protestants, 
 and they knew that the latter had never, in private life, made any dis- 
 tinction between them and other classes of citizens, while they recol- 
 lected that the passing of the Emancipation Act of 1829 had been 
 fffected mainly by Protestant exertion; so that, in addition to its gross 
 impolicy, the course protested against was attended with the aggra- 
 vating accompaniment of ingratitude. The Protest, and especially 
 the respectability of the signatures attached to it, threw the sacerdotal 
 
clique into CGiifiisioii, and ao-eiicies of the most estraordiiiarj descrip- 
 tion were resorted to, in order to compel individuals to withdraw their 
 names — " enormous Ijing" was, in some cases, not spared, and the 
 terrors of the Priest's spiritual cut-whip were held out in others ; but, 
 thoug'h partial secessions occui'red, the better portion of the Protesters 
 remained firm to their original purpose. Dr. Denvir, the Roman Ca- 
 tholic Bishop, then came forward, and, in no very indirect terms, added 
 to the cause of the priestly exclusives all the weight and sanction of 
 his Episcopal authority, so as to identify the Church with the policy 
 of the Vindicator, in its two- fold character of Anti -Protestant rancour 
 and Roman Catholic aggrandizement. 
 
 All this time the question of Repeal itself was studiously kept in the 
 back-ground, and the system of daily assault upon the Protestant faith 
 which we have described, and which, from the striking facts already 
 adduced, was evidently not the effect of mere accident, was kept up 
 with increased vigour. What benefit to their cause the contrivers of 
 that system could have expected from its operation, we may safely defy 
 human ingenuity to discover. It was calculated to alarm and disgust 
 Protestants of all religious and political creeds ; and it had this effect 
 to a degree scarcely equalled in the records of public opinion. Yet 
 this was the preparatory ground-work upon which Mr. O'Conncll, and 
 his partizans, had resolved to erect, in Ulster, the imperishable temple 
 of Repeal. The plan was notably devised, and it exhibited, in its 
 every developement, the genius of some mighty architect, whose fame 
 ought to be transmitted to all futurity. The plan was, first, to insult 
 us and our religion, without distinction of sect or party ; secondly, to 
 attempt the putting of our necks under the feet of the Roman Catho- 
 lics, even when the latter are in a local minority ; and, lastly, to call 
 upon us, in no very humble tone, to join them in the promotion of a 
 scheme for exalting them to the dignity of a permanent national ascen- 
 dancy ! If they exhibited, and the Church patronized> such a spirit as 
 this, when, in regard to Belfast at least, Roman Catholics constitute an 
 insignificant, uninfluential minority, what would they not do, supposing 
 them to have in their own hands the uncontrolled direction of the na- 
 tional councils ? We had nearly forgotten to state, that Mr. O'Conuell 
 himself openly participated in the Vindicator's policy ; and, lest the 
 Protest above referred to should, in any way, shake the confidence of 
 Roman Catholics in that " very useful journal," as Dr. Denvir had 
 called it, Mr. O'Connell took the trouble of writing a special letter 
 to the "useful journal," in which he not only made common cause v/ith 
 the sectarian faction here, but gave additional proofs of his own zeal 
 in its behalf, by blackguarding Protestantism in general, through all 
 the moods and tenses of the most vituperative oratory which he could 
 command, in the exercise of his recently assumed function of a " loath- 
 some Theologue." Let this important fact be distinctly recollected, 
 as it forms the concluding link in a chain of evidence, resistless as de- 
 monstration itself, as to the ulterior intentions of the Repealers — 
 intentions which the parties themselves had not the sagacity to hide — 
 and they must, consequently, noAV stand permanently convicted upon 
 their own recorded testimony. 
 
 Occasionally, during the course of last Summer, the Repeal doctrine 
 was quietly hinted in the Vindicator ; but, when the way was supposed 
 
lo hare been nearly opened, that doctrine was directly propounded, in 
 the shape of communications from " Eng-lish Gentlemen," and others ; 
 and lastly came its direct advocacy. Besides abusing our religion, 
 O'Connell himself was, at intervals, preparing the Northern soil for 
 the reception of the "good seed" about to be cast into it, by bestowing, 
 upon the people of Belfast especially, all the foul epithets to be foimd 
 in his copious vocabulary. Such were the spiritual and moral arrange- 
 ments that were made for our conversion to the great national cause of 
 Repeal — and they were, in every respect, worthy of that cause ; though 
 we must acknowledg'e, with a becoming regard to truth, that it is sel- 
 dom the devil has shown himself so great a blockhead as he proved to 
 be in this instance. 
 
 It having now been resolved upon, in solemn conclave, to throw aside 
 the reserve previously manifested, and to declare at once for Repeal, the 
 work was vigorously set about, and the agents employed were admi- 
 rably suited to their vocation. The Priests wrote in proportion to 
 their knowledge of English, and their acquaintance with the questions 
 which they pretended to discuss, while the tavern meetings, frequently 
 rendered necessary by the critical posture of affairs, had the double 
 effect of promoting the cause of national independence, and of minis- 
 tering to the equal necessities of arid clerics and thirsty laics j Avhose 
 " zeal" had literally dried them up. In consequence of remanstrances 
 which had been privately forwarded from a certain high quarter, 
 against the impolicy of the Vi7idicator's sectarianism, the manifestation 
 of which was regarded as premature under circumstances to be shortly 
 expected, a tone approaching to religious conciliation was adopted — 
 and, in truth, it was now most painfully manifest that the original 
 system had not only failed, but had, in addition, done unexpected mis- 
 chief. Sectarian exclusiveness was ostensibly repudiated ; and feelers 
 were put out, for the purpose of ascertaining the extent to which the 
 instructive recollections of the j)ast could be obliterated from the public 
 mind. 
 
 Not long after the close of the Parliamentary Session in August 
 last, Mr. O'Connell announced his intention of making- Provincial " pro- 
 gresses" throughout Ireland, for the purpose of organizing his favorite 
 agitation against the Legislative Union ; and the distant hope of a 
 Repeal demonstration in Belfast, presented irresistible charms to the 
 ardent imaginations of certain aspirants after distinction amongst the 
 Roman Catholic body in this town. The thought of being brought 
 into personal communication, and probably personal contact with the 
 " Liberator," was a temptation of no common power, and then the pos- 
 sibility of his consecrating some hitherto unknown domicile, by the 
 acceptance of its hospitable protection, either by night or day, added 
 transcendentalism to the prospect, and bade utter defiance to the icy 
 suggestions of prudence. The wiser heads amongst the party depre- 
 cated this project, and protracted were the discussions which ensued ; 
 but at length, the juniors so far prevailed, as to have the decision of 
 the matter left to Mr. O'Connell himself, and communications on the 
 subject of his visiting Belfast, wei'e accordingly made to him. He 
 knew the North better than to be rash in giving an affirmative an- 
 swer ; and in the meantime, the prudential section of the Repealers, 
 who were sufficiently aware of the real weakness of their party, did not 
 
fail to put Mr, O'Coanell in possession of their sentiments and theif 
 fears. For a considerable time he demurred to the proposal of the 
 Vindicatorial Consistory, but their upstart vanity impelled them only 
 to renewed urgency on this account, and accordingly at a meeting held 
 in the " Victoria News-Room," {^Vindicator office) on Saturday, Octo- 
 ber 17} 1840, it was arranged, that a deputation should meet Mr. 
 O'Connell at the dinner to be given to him in Drogheda, on the fol- 
 lowing Monday, and should formally invite him to Belfast. It is to be 
 presumed, that the deputation fulfilled their Mission, since in the Re- 
 port of Mr. O'Connell's speech at the Drogheda dinner, he is made to 
 say — " If the Belfast Repealers wish my attendance, I will attend — if 
 they prove themselves worthy of our co-operation, we will co-operate 
 with them." Indifferent comfort this ! — especially when taken in con- 
 nexion with the two dilatory, and almost tantalizing postponements 
 which followed. Mr. O'Connell spent from the 1 9th day of October, 
 till the 4th of December, in deliberating whether the Belfast Repealers 
 were or were not " worthy" of the honour of his co-operation — being 
 a period of rather more than a fortnight — and on the day last men- 
 tioned, he wrote to Charles M' A lister, Esq., Druggist, Belfast, the 
 most extraordinary letter that has ever been penned, in reply to an 
 invitation to any dinner public or private. From an Editorial analysis 
 of this unique production, published at the time in the Belfast News- 
 Letter, we take the following curious particulars : — 
 
 1. Mr. O'Connell, after reproaching himself for ike delay which had 
 occurred in forwarding his reply to the Belfast invitation, expressed 
 his fears, that in consequence of that delay, a public dinner could not 
 be had. 
 
 2. He would accept a dinner, if arrangements for it could possibly 
 be made. 
 
 3. He had rather have no dinner, but would prefer addressing a 
 public meeting. 
 
 4. Enemies were in the way, a bigotted press at work, and then to 
 quote his own words — " It is still more lamentabl e, that your estimable 
 and excellent Assistant Barrister, has had occasion to describe the 
 state of CRIME in your town, as exceeding enormously that of 
 ANT OTHER TOWN IN IREEAND." He had his personal fears, it seems. 
 
 5. Again, Mr. O'Connell urged the inexpediency of a public dinner, 
 unless effective arrangements could be made, and he concluded, by in- 
 forming Charles M'Alister, Esq., that on the 19th instant, he would 
 write to him again. 
 
 The same number of the Vindicator, which contained this letter, 
 contained also an announcement, that the dinner arrangements, as ori- 
 ginally proposed, would go on, and consequently, Mr. O'Connell was 
 pledged to attend. At first, it had been given out as a " St. Patrick s 
 Orphan Charity" dinner, in the expectation that some considerable 
 nun^ber of Protestants might be tempted to associate themselves with 
 Mr. O'Connell at the festive board, especially, as the object was to be 
 ostensibly a benevolent one — the question of Repeal being hurked for 
 the occasion. This trap was intended chiefly to catch the Liberal sec- 
 tion of the Protestant community, but it signally failed, and then the 
 scheme was r(!verted to, of trying a Reform dinner on general princi- 
 
10 
 
 pies, rridiout eommittiiig any iiidivldual either to Repeal, or to auy 
 other plan of organic change. Loud were the appeals made to Liber- 
 als of all classes on the necessity of Union, and the oblivion of all 
 minor points of internal difference, and tedious were the disquisitions 
 supplied by the priests on the public services rendered to Ireland, by 
 O'Cornell, and the more than doubtful sincerity cf that nominal Irish- 
 man, who would not hail his advent to the Northern Metropolis, Avith 
 " shouts of high acclaim." This device also failed to accomplish its 
 end, and then the Vindicator gentry turned round upon the Protes- 
 tant Liberals, with a fury that was absolutely rabid — every man who 
 should refuse to attend the O'Connell festival, Avas denounced as being 
 no L-ishnian, but a " mongrel," or a bigotted descendant of John Knox, 
 or some " foundling of nature" who had derived his origin from " a 
 fifer in Cromwell's army." Ireland, it was boldly declared, rejected all 
 such characters, and with the fierce tones of an Indian war-whoop, they 
 were peremptorily ordered to begone to their " own country" A. 
 broad, unconcealed Intimation was held forth, that the descendants of 
 all English and Scotch settlers in Ireland, who would not tie them- 
 selves to the tail cf Mr. O'Connell, ought to be expelled from our 
 " sacred island," in common with the herd of reptiles driven into the 
 sea, by the mirai^ulous agency of our patron Saint, while the enjoyment 
 of all the riches o^ the soil, and of all the natural beauties of Irish 
 scenery, should be left exclusively to the offspring of Miiesius, and to 
 the " foreign" mlnoiity, who might fraternise with their cause, thus 
 pvirchasing the privilege of being last devoured by a dereliction of all 
 honorable principle. This was out-speaking with a vengeance, the 
 purport of which, idiotism itself, could scarcely mistake ; but we re- 
 turn to our regular narrative. 
 
 Although Mr. O'Connell, in his first letter, had promised to write 
 to his respectable correspondent in Belfast, on the 19th of December, 
 yet, as in the former case, he took nearly a fortnight longer before he 
 could make up his mind as to the viltimate worthiness of his Northern 
 admirers. In a letter dated December 30, and addressed to Charles 
 M' Alister, Esq., he at length informed him of the extreme satisfaction 
 which he felt in accepting the invitation to a public dinner in Belfast, 
 where he would be on the 1 8th of January, in full time to make him- 
 self acquainted Avith the arrangements. He had been informed that 
 the dinner would take place in the evening, that the Repeal meeting 
 would be held on the following day (Tuesday), and that arrangements 
 had been made by a number of ladles for a soiree, to which Mr. 
 O'Connell was invited, and which was to take place on the evening of 
 the day last mentioned. In reference to this additional compliment, 
 he said, in the letter under review, " I am proud to be allowed to pay 
 my respects to the lovely and the good of your town." Before this 
 period, Belfast had been the most enormously criminal town in all 
 Ireland ; now, it appeared that there were some " lovely" and '^^ good" 
 ones in it, who, like the five " righteous men" in the Scripture history, 
 had sufficient influence to save a whole city from judicial condemnation. 
 The tone of this letter, too, was essentially different from that of the 
 previous communication : — every thing now must be couciliation and 
 kindness — no driving; of ^'mongrels" Into the sea with *'kail stocks" 
 
H 
 
 ■ — no offensive exhibition must take place, for neither in " matter nor 
 in manner" ought the opponents of Repeal to have any cause of com- 
 plaint against its adherents. The moderation, thus affected, came, 
 however, too late to be useful, as nineteen-twentieths of the " criminal" 
 respectability of Belfast had determined to give no countenance to the 
 affair in any shape. 
 
 This letter, as we have said, was dated on the 30th of December, 
 and appeared in the Vindicator of January 2 ; but, at the meeting of 
 the Repeal Association, in Dublin, on the 27th, Mr. O'Counell had 
 ostentatiously proclaimed his triumphal journey towards the North, 
 and, after particularizing (amidst cries of " God speed you") the 1 7th 
 of January as the day on which he would leave the metropolis for 
 Belfast, he added " I wish I could collect in my pocket handkerchief 
 all the cheers I will get until I pass by the Linen-Hall there, and I 
 am much mistaken if they do not get a re-echo when I go there." 
 (Cheers and laughter.) This did not look like a wish or an intention 
 to avoid every thing that might be unpalatable in " matter or manner" 
 to the parties opposed to him. He wrote, moreover, a letter to Dr. 
 Blake, the Roman Catholic Bishop of Dromore, announcing the very 
 hour of the day at which he would pass through Drogheda, Dundalk, 
 and Newry, respectively, at each of which places triumphal processions 
 were arranged to meet and accompany him on his progress ; and it 
 was in this style that he originally proposed to march to the " peace- 
 ful agitation" of the North. It is needless to add, that apprehensions 
 of the most serious nature were universally entertained by all who 
 wished well to the tranquility of society ; and it would appear from 
 the event, that Mr. O'Connell himself was not long in discovering the 
 perilous nature of the experiment which his inherent love of popular 
 display had prompted him to suggest. Within three short days, a 
 " change came o'er the spirit of his dream." 
 
 It may be necessary to mention that, in the letter last quoted, Mr. 
 O'Connell carefully limited his stay here in the following terms, viz. : 
 " I should hope to be able to sail f jr Glasgow on the night of the 19th. 
 or early on the 20th ; if not, my better way may be to return to Dublin 
 on the 20th, and go hence that night to Liverpool." A vague report, 
 as will afterwards appear, had reached him, relative to Dr. Cooke's 
 probable intention of inviting him to a public discussion, all opportu- 
 nity for which it was determined to preclude, under the convenient 
 plea of engagements contracted beforehand. 
 
 On Saturday, the 2nd of January, Mr. O'Connell's definitive accept- 
 ance of the Repeal invitation to a dinner in Belfast appeared in the 
 Vindicator, as we have already Intimated. On the following Tuesday, 
 an authorized announcement of Dr. Cooke's intention to challenge him. 
 was published in the Ulster Times, and the challenge itself came forth, 
 in an official form, in the Chronicle of the following morning (Wed- 
 nesday.) We are thus particular in noting dates because in some of 
 the newspaper discussions which ensued considerable stress was laid 
 upon the circumstance of time. The annexed is a copy of the learned 
 Doctor's challeuore : — 
 
12 
 
 TO »ANIEL OCGNNELL, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 JBblfast, Tj(}i January, 1841. 
 Sir, — So long as you confined your Repeal Agitation to the South of Ireland, no 
 
 man dared to meet you. But this want oi daring was not want of courage it was 
 
 the rnere shrinking of gentlemen from such rude and ungenerous treatment as vou 
 furnished [to your gi/on(Zam/)>o^e£r^ and friend Air. Sharman Crawford, when,' in 
 the simplicity of contidence, he allowed himself to be inveigled to the Corn- ^x- 
 change, where a fact was turned aside by a jest, and an argument replied to by an 
 insult. 
 
 But when you invade Ulster, and unfurl the flag of Repeal, you will find yourself 
 in a new climate. And as there never yet was a i.ian who cou'd equal you in " put- 
 ting off or on" to suit his company, I do expect to find you in Belfast as innocent 
 and well-mannered a gentlemen, as any one could desire in a summer day. And 
 were I sure you would never return to your original nature, and abuse Belfast, when 
 you had fairly got out of it, as lately you did — when, echoing the eructations of a 
 bilious Barrister, you pronounced it one of "the most criminal towns in the hing- 
 doms" and were 1 sure that you would not, in Parliament, brag and boast of the 
 progress of Repeal, even in " the black North'' — and, were I sure you would not 
 affirm that, "fi-om Carrickfergus to Cape Clear,'' you were received, not only with- 
 out opposition, "but with eyes of admiration and shouts of applause — were 1 sure on 
 all these points, I must confess I should shrink, as others have done, from venturing 
 or oflTering to come into conflict with you. But, so far from being sure that you 
 will not do these things, I am fully convinced they are just the very things you 
 would do. You will " blarney'' Belfast so long as you are in sight of it, and it will 
 be in your vocabulary a "great city" of the " lovely and the good ;'' but, once over 
 the border, it will again shrink into "a village," (you recollect that) and the "lovely 
 and the good" town will again become " the most criminal in the kingdom.'' And I 
 know, that were you to enter and pass through Ulster in unimpeded triumph, your 
 organs, that at first proclaimed your invasion as "the most signal triumph ever 
 achieved over bigotry," but who, on hearing of the possibility of your being met in 
 nrguraent, have lately drawn in their horns, and begun to inculcate peace (rare 
 apostles they of peace who have called Mr" O'Connell into Ulster to proclaim it) — 
 were you once fairly out of town, full well I know they would soon be at their 
 ** triumphs'' once more, and the North and the South would ring with the "hulla- 
 baloo" of your unexampled victories ; and as for yourself, I do equally well know 
 you would dare to tell the British Parliament that Repeal was the very life-pulse 
 of the country, and that " The sturdy Presbyterians of Belfast" had received you 
 with al! their hearts as its mighty organ, the people with morning shouts, the 
 gentlemen with dinners, and the " lovely and the good'' with oceans of evening tea ! 
 Now, it is just because I know you would attempt all this, and more, that I, by 
 God's help, will attempt to prevent you ; and that, Mr. O'Connell, not in your 
 own favourite style of " Sharman my jewelling,'' but in calm, deliberate, and logical 
 argument. And to this decision I, perhaps, should never have arrived, but that, 
 being challenged by one of your own entertainers, to meet you and discuss Repeal; and 
 acting upon a principle that I have long adopted, that ^' a jest has always some ear- 
 nest in it,'' I replied, " 1 would meet you,'' and hoped by God's blessing, on a good 
 cause, literally to make an example of you. And, this, I said, in no vain confidence 
 in my own poor abilities, but, literally, and plain truth to speak, because I believe 
 you are a great bad man, engaged in a great bad cause — and as easily foiled by a 
 weak man, armed with a good cause, as Goliah, the Giant of Gath, was discom- 
 fited by the stripling David, with no weapon but a sling and two pebbles from 
 the brook. 
 I propose, accordingly, the following plan for your consideration : — 
 
 1. Your proposed Repeal meeting in Belfast, instead of a meeting for harangues, 
 " all on the one side,''' shall be a discussion, between yourself and your hurpble servant. 
 
 2. The meeting shall be managed by a committee, composed equally of your 
 friends and mine. 
 
 3. Tickets (free) shall be issued, under their common authority — one-half to 
 your friends — one-half to mine. 
 
 4. Subject — The advantages or disadvantages ef a Repeal of the Union to Ireland 
 — in its bearing on agriculture, manufactures, general trade, safety of the present 
 settlement of ^11 property, and the protection of civil and religious liberty. 
 
13 
 
 6. Each speal;er to confine himself, as far as possible, to two hour speeehea, but 
 no absolute limit beyond the feeling of the speaker; but, if the opener of the dis- 
 cussion occupies three hours, he shall forfeit his right of roply. 
 6. The meeting to be governed by two chairmen, one chosen by each discussionist. 
 And, now, Mr. O'Connell, let me speak a word very plainly to you. You can- 
 
 >H>t avoid this discussion. I am the man you have so often reviled behind his back 
 
 can you do less than meet him /ace to face? You can not pronounce me too igno- 
 ble for your argument, when you did not judge me too obscure for your abuse. 
 Turn the rratter as you will you can find no excuse or evasion. Let your friends 
 hint that it rany endanger the peace. The time to have thought of that was, ivhen 
 they invited youto make a;i experiment upon our Northern patience. But, in point of 
 fact, Mr. O'Connell, the discussion will be the surest mode to preserve the peace, 
 which your presence can never once endanger. Even the recollection of all your 
 recent abuse of "our village," our " most criminal village in the kingdom, * could 
 not provoke us to more than a legal morceau, which I have provided for your fe:ists, 
 viz. the STATISTICS OF Northern crime, in which, by referencj to tlie records of 
 county gaols and local prisons, I purpose to trace upwards, botli before you and the 
 empire, the streams of criaie, and inundate the really gisiity with the polluted waters 
 they have muddied and embittered at their fountain heads. 
 
 Nor think, Mr. O'Connell, to evade me by saying — "Ah! the loathsome Theo- 
 logue means to drag me into a religious controversy — and, as it suits my present 
 tactics to forget all I said about his religion last year, so I can make that my excuse 
 for refusing to meet him.'' No, no, this will never do — I wilt not leave you this 
 pitiful loop-hole — I pledge myself <o avoid every purely theological tov'c, and to con- 
 fine myself exclusively to subjects of political economy and jurispru lence ; and, if 
 your church have embodied these subjects in the tomes of her theology, her decretals, 
 extravagants, and bulls, that is no fault of rciue. As a lawyer, you know that this 
 mixture took place when Popes were Emperors, when Cardinals were prime minis- 
 ters, when priests were counsellors, and monks scriveners. Another secret let me 
 whisper to you — if you refuse this discussion, the ghost of it will haunt you on the 
 benches of St. Stephens'. I grant you that, to prostrate me, could gain you little 
 credit, but to shrink from me, under any pretence, would ensure you the gr 'ater 
 disgrace. You profess to be able, if they would but hear you, to convince the Con- 
 servatives o( tha mischisk o( the Union: You never before had such an offer of a 
 Conservative audience. Prove tlien your sincerity, by appearing before them. 
 
 I have only now to add, for tlie satisfaction of the pubh'c, that, as I havt; written 
 you a private letfe) to Dublin by this evening's post ; and as that letter will reach 
 you on tlie morning of the 6th, before you set out for Mullingar, where, I perceive, 
 you are to be on the 7th — having thus given you timely and sufficient notice, I beg 
 to crave your reply on the 9th, or 10th at farthest ; and that, for two reasons — I 
 wish the public to have timely notice of your indentions; and, in case you do not 
 accede to my proposal, I have other public duties on hand that would call me to 
 Scotland for a few days, and so render our meeting impossible. 
 
 I have the honour to be, both for truth and peace's sake, your faithful servant, 
 
 H. COOKE. 
 
 P.S — So far as the public are concerned, I beg to remind them, that I have 
 written to Mr. O'Connell on the 5th instant, and that if I do not receive his answer 
 on or before the 11th, I do not purpose to meet him in discussion ; and the reason- 
 ableness of this liiritation will, I hope, be acknowledged. 
 
 It is impossible to describe the state of consternation and dismay 
 into which the appearance of this admirably written letter threw the 
 Repealers, whose plans were now entirely disconcerted. On the other 
 hand, the exultation of the friends of British connexion was great in 
 proportion; and it is only justice towards the Liberal Protestants to 
 say, that the great body of them were, in regard to the learned Doe- 
 tor's championship on this question, quite as enthusiastic as were the 
 Conservatives. Even the Northern Whig hailed the appearance of 
 Dr. Cooke in the field as an auspicious event, likely, in its moral con- 
 sequences, to give a quietus to the Repeal agitation in Ulster ; while 
 
14 
 
 tne Chronicle, generally neutral on public questions, took a decisire 
 part on the present occasion. The News-Letter, in anticipation of the 
 subterfuges to which recourse would be had by the Repealers for an 
 avoidance of the proposed controversy, accompanied its publication of 
 Dr. Cooke's letter with an Editorial artcile embodying and removing, 
 by anticipation, almost every possible excuse that could be alleged. 
 The following is a copy of the article in question : — 
 
 We need information on the Repeal question, and must have it, and, in order to 
 prevent disappointments, in regard to Mr. O'Connell's coming here flt all, we beg 
 leave to enter our protest against the occurrence of all and sundry of the following 
 casualties, that is to say — 
 
 1. We protest against Mr. O'Connell taking a cold at Mullingar or elsewhere. 
 
 2. We protest against his carriage breaking djwn under any circumstances.. 
 
 3. Most emphatically do we protest against the unexpected sickness or sudden 
 death of any relative or connexion of Mr. O'Connell, within the forty-seventh degree 
 of consanguinity. 
 
 4. We protest against every other accident whatever, minus an earthquake, which 
 may possibly render liis arrival in Belfast physically impossible on the day promised. 
 
 5. We protest against the slippery state of the roads being alleged as an excuse, so 
 long as there is a smith in the kingdom to put into the horse's shoes a few extra 
 ■' frost nails." 
 
 6. We protest af^ainst any urgent business arising, ad interim, in the universal 
 world, which may prevent the Liberator from fulfilling his purpose of coming to 
 Belfast. 
 
 Having now, as wo conceive, by our varied protests, secured Dan's arrival amongst 
 us, we go on still farther to protest against a series of possible excuses which may ba 
 alleged, for the purpose of avoiding a meeting with Dr. Cooke, and 
 
 1. We protest against Dan's dying in the iuterim on any account. 
 
 2. We protest against the supposition that a single Anti-Repealer, be he Orange- 
 man or not, will apply to him an offensive epithet, much less treat him to a mouthful 
 of mud. 
 
 3. We protest against the allegation that the peace would be endangered, as we 
 will guarantee the orderly conduct of the Unionist portion of the audience. If any 
 individual of this class shall misbehave, we engage that he shall be forthwith bundled 
 neck and crop out of the place, by his own party, without the interference of a 
 policeman. 
 
 4<. We protest against the supposition of Dr. Cooke's private letter to Mr. O'Con- 
 nell not having been received previously to the departure of the latter gentleman 
 for Mullir.gar. This town is distant from Dublin exactly 39 miles, and the Dublin 
 Post-office is open at seven o'clock in the morning, so that no plea can be founded 
 on the circumstance alluded to. It is not credible that O'Connell would leave 
 Dublin before the delivery of the mail; but even if he had, tliere is a daily post 
 between the metropolis and Mullingar. 
 
 5. We protest against discussions in general being objected to, as Mr. O'Connell 
 once did before in the case of Dr. O'SuUivan. Tlie bearer of the message was po- 
 litely shewn to the door, and no formal answer returned. The excuse was, that 
 Theology was Jn question, but in the present case politics alone are concerned. 
 
 6. We farther protest against t!,e refusal of a public discussion. Our protest rests 
 on the grounds distinctly set forth in one of Mr. O'Connell's own letters, in which 
 " Protestants, Presbyterians, and even Orangemen" were invited to attend the Re- 
 peal meeting. He never could mean that they should implicitly swallow his state- 
 ments without making their own objections. And this is exactly what Dr. Cooke's 
 meeting with him will effect, if he did not in'end to convince our judgments, by 
 listening to, and answering our conscientious o'ojections, we are entitled to ask in 
 his own style — 
 
 " VVIiat are you after, Daniel, my jewel. 
 
 What brought you here, O'Connell, my man >" 
 
 7. We protest against Mr. O'Connell's pl^ding his engagement at Leeds as "a 
 pretext for skulking away on this occasion, He avowedly expects no justice from 
 
15 
 
 Ikitisli legislation; and what are the interests of Leeds, at wliieh be is to be oniy ii 
 subordinate actor, as compared with the interests of all Ireland ? 
 
 8. V/e protest against all mere humbugs that may be resorted to in order to avoid 
 a fair discussion of the question. O'Connell comes to convert us to his Repeal agi- 
 tation, and he must consequently hoar us in our own vindication before he can ex- 
 pect us to tie ourselves to his tail. Wo cannot all speak at once, and Dr. Cooke 
 being our common representative, so far as the Repeal is concerned, must be heard 
 if there is to be c public meeting at all. — If it is to be a private meeting or a Ribbon 
 Lodge, or any thing of that sort, why we shall not trouble our heads about it; 
 but, in other circumstances, we will in the name of Protestants of all political de- 
 nominations insist upon a calm, rational, deliberate investigation of the whole mat- 
 ter. It may be that we are all wrong in our opposition to Repeal, and what we 
 want is a fair opportunity of being set right. Would it not be a grand triumph for 
 O'Connell to bring over the North to his cause, and is any sacrifice too great for 
 the attainment of such an object ? — Belfast News-Letter, Jauuarxj 8. 
 
 Intense curiosity now existed in the public mind, in reference to the 
 answer which ?ijr. O'Connell would give to Dr. Cooke's letter ; and, 
 accordingly, the appearance of the Vindicator of Saturday, (tlie 9th of 
 January), was awaited with some interest, as being likely to afford a 
 shadow of the " coming event." The Vindicator did appear, and de- 
 clared it to be impossible that ]\Ir. O'Connell should condescend to 
 meet Dr. Cooke ; but, amidst the ridicule and derision of the whole 
 A nti- Repeal community, and to the utter confusion aud discomfiture 
 of even the ordinary herd of Repealers themselves, who are neither 
 the most intelligent nor the most sensitive of mortals, the organ of 
 the clique authoritatively stated, that they had in readiness " a Her- 
 cules-Street Artizan .'" alias, a Butcher ! ! who was ready to accept 
 the offered challenge ! ! ! This substitution was so palpably ludicrous 
 as to afford materials for incessant laughter to the universal public, 
 including the Repealers themselves, who made a deplorable figure by 
 generally laughing " on the wrong side of their mouths." Deep dis- 
 satisfaction prevailed amongst the mass of Repealers, and many curi- 
 ous anecdotes might be related in this respect, were it consistent with 
 the objects of our publication to enter upon a topic so discvirsive. The 
 individual to whom fame had originally pointed as the " artizan," -yvho 
 was to employ his cleaver upon Dr. Cooke's arguments, was, we be- 
 lieve, not a little indignant at the office assigned to him, and would 
 have settled his account rather smartly with the authors of that report 
 had they been immediately tangible. 
 
 As a mere sample of the bitter disappointment which prevailed 
 amongst the great bulk of the " rent- payers," and of the recriminatory 
 conversations which consequently took place, the following dialogue, 
 the scene of which is laid in Ann-street, on the forenoon of Saturday, 
 the 9th of January, is extracted from the Belfast News-Letter of the 
 12th. The Editor introduces it with an apology for the vulgarisms 
 and oaths which it contains ; but to expunge these would have deprived 
 the conversation of its reality as a picture of actual life : — 
 
 Teiiky loquitur, shaking hakds — 
 
 "Morra, Barney, — how are ye man, every inch iv ye, — an' how's Katty an' the 
 childre ?" 
 
 " All bravely, glory be to God ; and hovr ar« ye yerself, Twry ? an' Molshie, the 
 erathur — how's ihc gettin' an ?" 
 
IB 
 
 '* Troth only midilHn', poor sowl — this weathei's hard an lier, but itill ihe buffs 
 Harry, surprizin'ly. Where have yez been this a way ?" 
 
 " Troth I've been over tlie way there, gettin' the AUigathor of this mornin.' Pat 
 an' Mike, an' Briney an' mysilf clubbed our pennies a-piece, an' here's the paper." 
 
 " Och, it's the Vindicator ye mane." * 
 
 «* To be sure it is, but the sorra wan o' me can cret my tongue about the word this 
 could weather, till I've put in a frast nail or two." 
 
 " Well, what's the news?" 
 
 " Tare an' ounty, man a live, is that all ye know about it? Hasn't Cooke chal- 
 lenged Dan ?" 
 
 " Don't I know all that ; but is Dan to meet h'.n ?" 
 
 " No, in sowl, but the Alii — the Vindicator I mane — says, that Lanty, the Harcklia- 
 street boy, ye know, has challengetl Cooke in Dan's place, and may be Ae'wont do 
 for him. The Vindicator says he'll welt the out of him." 
 
 " Arrahj betheration! Is it fun ye're makin' ?" 
 
 " No, by the frost — there's the paper, an' there it is, in black an' white, afore 
 yez." 
 
 ( Reads). Big tare an ounthers, an' that wont do for me by any manner o' manes. 
 What for didn't some iv the clargy take up the cudgels, an' not make gomasei iv 
 themselves wid sich an amadhaun as Lanty ? By the powers iv Moll Kelly, the pass 
 is sowld upon us, an' tha 's all about it. The Prispitearin blaggards 'ill have a purty 
 while's laughin' at us." Manam go Dhia. 
 
 " Tundher an' turf, Terry, what is it ye're afther? — Manam an dioul, if I don't 
 think you're cracked or turnin' heretic yerrself." 
 
 " The devil a mo.dal iv ib, Barney — but blud an' ages, man, who can stan' to sea 
 us made fools an' asses iv, an' mocked at every corner by them blastit intherlopin* 
 blackmouths an' swaddlers, an' us not havin' a word to say for ourselves ? 1 heerd 
 about Lanty, but thought it all a joke. It was started in Tim B — g — a's bac'c 
 kitchen the other night over a go of grog; but who on arth would hae thought our 
 own people sich asses as to expo-se us this a way afore the town ? By my s — w — 1, 
 if I had some iv them by the ear I'd warm it for them comfortably, so I would — 
 for makin' game iv us, for sorra hap'orth its else, betune you an' me." 
 
 " Whisht, Terry — man alive —don't ye see that sconsin* luckin' blaggard listenin' 
 to us every word we say ? Coiue acrass here to Jack's and I'll trate ye to half a one 
 
 the weather's cowld. (Whispering.) To blazes wid the rascal — he'll tell every 
 
 word he has heerd, as sure as a gun's iron. How wud it do to mark him to grace wid 
 the laste taste in life iv a snow-ball ?" 
 
 •• Come along, Barney; never mind — we'll take 'the half-ones in the name it 
 
 goodness, an' say no luore about it ; only we're tairly ^upon that's the God's 
 
 truth, an' every body knows it. If Dan disn't take the consate out iv Cooke afore 
 lavin' this, tatthevation to the farthin' iv my money he sees for a twel'inonth iv Sun- 
 days to come. To stick L;'nty in for id, 's a mortial humbug, so it is, an' I wont 
 Stan' it; an', more be token, I don't care a traneen if all ihe yellow bellies in 
 Belfast heerd what I'm savin'. The cause iv ould Ireland to be damnified bekase 
 Dan wont stan' by us, an' us workin' the nails afFour fingers to make up the Hint ! 
 To Darrynane wid him bick again, if the dacent spark's not in him, says Barney 
 O'Rourke ; an' for Lanty , the worst I wish him is, more sinse nor to let his silf be 
 made a worl's wondher iv, unless he's ped for it ; an' then every mortial crathur till 
 his taste, as the Heelan' man said when he kissed the cow." 
 
 " Thrue for ye, Barney — an' if Dan shud be bate, what the d— 1 do we pay him 
 for but batin'? I was ax'd to take a ticket this morniu' ; but no, by de hokey, says 
 I, isn't it the man th-it gets the money that thrates ! If he shakes the nonsense 
 out iv Cooke, an' clears our correcthur, I'm his man; but to Peg Tranium's back 
 parlour wid him, if he disn't."* [Exeunt — Barney in a passion.] 
 
 In the Commercial Chronicle of Monday, the 1 1th of January, the 
 Jollowing letter appeared from the Rev. Daniel M'Afee, Wesleyau 
 Minister, of Donegall-square Chapel : — 
 
 * Peg Trantiim's in a public house, said, by tiie vulgar, to be situated half-way betweea 
 h-U and purgatory ; so that there ii mor© bitterness in Baraay'* exocrat'oa than might at 
 firit app«ar. 
 
17 
 
 TO DANIEL OCONNELL, ESQ., AI.P. 
 
 Sm, Were a gentleman to leave this country in debt to a merchant or banker. 
 
 there would be nothing extraordinary, if, on his return from America or the Conti- 
 nent, the creditor should demand payment, and, in case of default, hand him over 
 first to a bailiff, and then to the Sheriff of the County. You are deeply in my debt. 
 The public at large are witnesses. You were furnished with the items in seven let- 
 ters, dated from 8th of Aug., 1839, till Jan,, the 1 Ith, 1810. On the 11th instant, 
 then, you will be exactly twelve calendar months in my debt. It is rather remarkable 
 that this should be the very date in which the Rev. Dr. Cooke demands payment for 
 hLs bill ! How strangely things occur; both are now pressing for payment, because 
 we are aware you have got quantum sufficit of the tribute to pay you for your self- 
 styled patriotism, and, in common honesty, you should now discharge all out- standing 
 debts. No doubt it must startle you a little to find your old creditors coming upon 
 you at such an eventful crisis. I fear greatly, however, that the worthy Doctor and 
 myself will come off at a dead loss, as it is likely some Jesuit or other will strike the 
 docket of bankruptcy against you, confine you in limbo, and thus prevent the possi- 
 bility of a legal arrest on tbe 18th inst., the day appointed for your visit to this " most 
 immoral town in the kingdom.'' Come, however, you must — you are confidently 
 expected?— you are announced in all the newspapers, and placarded on every wall 
 about town, as president of the grand soiree to be given by the ladies. Ulster is now 
 in commotion — the cry of Repale is up — ." the beloved Blackfeet and VVhitefeet," the 
 midsummer pilgrims to Lough Derrig and Struile Wells, will pour into this great 
 emporium of the North just to catch a glance of your burly figure, and see you 
 shoulder the Ulster Protestants to one side as you swagger down the streets. From 
 M'Swine's gun, in the county of Donegal, to the Cushendall glens, and from Malin 
 Well to Lake Sheelan, iu the extremity of Cavan, the grey-coated boys will come 
 furnished, each with his shillelah, and stand ready to cry out at your bidding, "hurrah 
 for repale I" And then consider the trouble and expense connected with the evening 
 party — the cost of the splendid room — the hire of tea tackle — the price of grapes, 
 wine, and confectionary — the disappointment of the priests, their nieces, and the 
 pretty servant girls, who, for once in their lives, will show off for ladies of the first 
 quality at the twarry. Why, Sir, you must come — the disappointment would be 
 tremendous — you will prevent an immensity of mockery, and, at the same time, excite 
 more attention than any or all of the gentry in Batty's Circus. To complete the 
 matter, do bring Q'Sullivan, the family piper, along, as he is excellent on that in- 
 strument. He can play " No King but Charley," for the party, it being your 
 favourite air, especially on Sunday evenings. Old Orpheus on his harp charmed 
 the trees and the stones from their places ; but what is the harp compared to the 
 pipes, especially when treason and Repeal are in the sound ? Besides all this, the 
 Protestants of all denominations are expecting you ; Churchmen, Presbyterians, 
 Wesleyans, Baptists, and Independents, and even the very Friends themselves arcs 
 wondering "if thou wilt come." I am expecting you, and Dr Cooke has given you 
 a cead miUe falteagh. Never did any man enter Ulster before under more favourable 
 auspices. High and low, rich and poor, the nobleman and the beggar, tlse clergy and 
 the laity, are all of one mind, and say — " Come, Mr. O'Coniiell, come." Cut stop. 
 Sir, and let us glance at the work before you. What is the preparation for it, and 
 what will be the result? Count the cost before you move one ini,'h out of the way, 
 and consider well what you have to perform. 
 
 1. Above all things you must take care of your aanctity — not your person. Here 
 there is no maa will shoot, stab, or iiisult you — Antrim is not like Tipperary. Mi- 
 nisters here do not conceal murders, as they have no confessional. You need have no 
 fear for any thing but your piety, as this is " the most immoral town in the kingdom.'' 
 There are fewer persons here who worship a piece of bread, pray to the Virgin Mary, 
 go to Peter Dens' Confessional, dread Purgatory, seek for Extreme Unction, re- 
 nounce the Bible and follow the ignis fatuus of tradition, than in any other larga 
 town or city in Ireland, and hence there is less piety and more of rational and scrip. 
 tural religion ! Take care, therefore, of yourself. Confess for a week forward before 
 you set out-^double your devotions every day, and thus have a week's surplus of merit 
 on your hand ; and, above all things, bring a bottle of holy water in your pocket, and 
 a holy scapular round your neck, to preserve you from the immoral infection of ihh 
 Protestant atmosphere. Thus you may enter into Belfast fortified against immorality. 
 Protestant truth will not be able to infringe on your popish falsehoods, nor open, 
 manly, Protestant candour on yo6r Jesuitical and shuffling intrigues. Yoa can then 
 blew hpt *r «olcI, bLinwy or abus«, prais* or blame, assert or deny, keep faith aur 
 
 G 
 
is 
 
 break it, sing a psalm or a song ; but never chaunt a palinode where you have inflicted 
 an injury or uttered a well-known misrepresentation. So much for the tools • now 
 let us glance at the work. ' 
 
 2. When you arrive here you must meet Dr. Cooke. There is no alternative but 
 
 stay away altogether, or meet your antagonist face to face. Ko apology will avail 
 
 Read a capital article in the Newt-Letter of to-day, hemming you in'on everv side. 
 You must neither take a sore throat at MuUingar, sprain your ancle on the frost, lake 
 ill with gout or toothache, or, returning home, say you did not receive the Doctor's 
 letter in time, complain of the shortness of the notice, plan another meeting for your- 
 self, dread a breach of the peace ; nor, above all, affect to despise or treat with silent 
 contempt the challenge of Dr. Cooke. You cannot do this. He stands on too high 
 a pedestal for your low scorn to reach him. Protestant Ulster will shake her sides 
 with laughter, and screw the muscles of her i-ober face in stern coutempi at your re- 
 fusal in any form whatever. Your party, chop-fallen, will hang the under-lip_the 
 swaggering priest will become as pale as his apostolic cravat — the throat of Repeal 
 will be cut in the jugular (or juggler's) vein, and the very life-blood of blustering, 
 bubbling, blarneying humbug will flow, as it were, into the Lagan, along with rotten 
 turnips and dead cats. You may then wander around the walls of Darrynane Abbey 
 with Tom o'Bedlam's song in your mouth — 
 
 " I'll mount upon the dog star. 
 
 And there pursue the morning ; 
 
 I'll chase the moon till it be noon, 
 
 And make her quit her horning. 
 
 I'll scan the icy mountains, 
 
 To shun all female gipsies ; 
 And play at bowls with sun and moon. 
 
 And scare them with eclipses. 
 
 The stars puU'd from their orbs, too, 
 
 I'll cram them in my budget ; 
 And if I'm not a roaring: hoi/, 
 
 I'll leave the world to judge it." 
 
 3. On arriving here, you must prove that Repeal will be a benefit to the country > 
 
 that the glorious days of Brian Boroilime, when champions rode to battle on a sug- 
 aun, without saddle or stirrups, were nothing to what Ireland shall then be — that 
 the priests will build no more splendid chapels to exalt their religion, and that from 
 the pence of those who are starving in mud-huts. You must prove, Sir, that there 
 will be less corruption among a parliament of Papists, than in the old one of the 
 Protestants — that the union has had an influence in lessening instead of increasing 
 trade in Ireland — that the state of agriculture will be better then than now — that 
 manufactures will spring up under your fostering care, and that you will never be 
 suspected of taking a bribe in relation to the working inmates ,of those commercial 
 prisons, as it is thought you did in the factory question in England. You must 
 prove. Sir, that Belfast, which has far more than doubled its population, and in- 
 creased its trade six fold since the Union, would have been a better town without it, 
 and will rise into far greater importance if Repeal took place — it might not be amiss 
 also for you to show, that as Popery increases immorality will decrease in Belfast, 
 because the opinion is generally entertained that the greatest number of delinquents 
 belong to your infallible Church, although they are a very minor party in town. — 
 Above all, you must demonstrate, and that as clearly as the 47th proposition of 
 Euclid — that, in case of Repeal, you do not want ascendency for your Church — that 
 she is not " Mystery, Babylon the Great" — that she never had a principle of arro- 
 gance which led her to trample on the necks of Kings, and place the spiritual above 
 the secular power in states ; that if this were the case, at one time, as all history 
 testifies, how came she [to resign this arrogant pretension and still remain infallible, 
 "unchangeable and unchanged ?" You must demonstrate also, that Protestants shall 
 have liberty of conscience ; that Ribbon societies shall cease ; that we are to have 
 no more assassinations and systematic murders ; that Protestant life as well as Pro- 
 testant property shall be secure ; that under the mild sway of such an incarnation of 
 arrogance and impudent pretensions, as are embodied in John of Tuam, we are to 
 have liberty to worship God in peace, and shall have no dread of another massacre 
 such as that in 164j1. You are to demonstrate to us that we are to have no more 
 paid political harlequins, who, under pretence of .patriotism, disturb the country, 
 drain away the resources of the starving peasantry, and thus form a tribute for the 
 
19 
 
 tupport of the greatest national hiimbugger in the wulo world. Now, Sir, iC yon 
 demons/rate all this, you may come to Belfast, and we will believe you and join with 
 you ; but mark ! it must be clear, sound demonstration ; we will take no voust, 
 listen to no promises, heed no oaths ; all these will be useless to heretics like us. 
 We know their value. Dr. M'Ghee has demonstrated this before the nation; away 
 then with these cobwebs, and let us now have demonstration. 
 
 4. On your coming here, in order to gain all parties and unite them in one cry 
 for Repeal, see what you have to do. To gain the Presbyterians you must put down 
 Dr. Cooke! To gain the Churchmen you must answer the charges of Dr. M'Ghee. 
 To gain the Wesleyans you must publicly and decidedly recant the opsn, barefaced false- 
 hoods which you uttered respecting the Rev. John Wesley — you must acknowledge 
 Father O'Leary to be guilty of forgery, and that you still stand with your feet in 
 his trap. To gain my approbation, for one, you must answer my letters ; you must 
 prove that many Popes have not been infallible monsters of iniquity — you must con- 
 fess that Belfast never possessed a viler culprit, with all its immorality, than some 
 of those holy fathers — and that a priest has a power of turning one of the half-penny 
 cakes, which shall be handed round at the soiree, into the body and blood, soul and 
 divinity of the Saviour of the world! Lastly, in order to gain the thinking portion 
 of the " finest pisantrtj." belonging to our communion in the North, you must say 
 something about the case of Shanahan, stated at large in my letter to your ton Mau- 
 rice. You recollect how he voted for your interest — how he, a Roman Catholic, 
 was ruined for the good of the Church — how he repaired to Darrynane Abl^y with 
 a document stating the fact, and signed by 22 of your most respectable adherents in 
 Tralee, with Dr. M'Ennery's name, the Vicar- General of the Popish diocese, at the 
 head of the list — and you recollect, also, how you wrote at the bottom of the paper, 
 " I should consent to have all my family excluded from Parliament, and myself, also, 
 sooner than have applications made to me for money in this shape." This document 
 I saw, with your ruthless reply. Now, Sir, will you explain this? Do condescend 
 to give a ^as?« of explanation. The tribute, I understand, is withheld here until you 
 arrive. Do justice to poor Shanahan. I appeal to the Treasurers. Let them retain 
 Shanahan's share, at least what he had contributed before he was ruined by false 
 promises. The sum can be easily transmitted. His address is, " Mr. WiUiain Sha- 
 nahan, Ardfert, Kerry." The poor fellow will still take it as a matter of right, and 
 though he may never forgive your cruel and ungrateful treatment, it will go to shew 
 that there is still some little honour and retributive justice subsisting even amonjj 
 beggars. — I remain yours, &c. 
 
 DANIEL M'AFEE. 
 
 Belfast, Jan. 9, 18il. 
 
 The " Hercules-street Artizan' had turned out to be a blunder so 
 egregious, that its contrivers themselves were heartily ashamed of it, 
 and were soon glad to drop all reference to a topic so little calculated 
 to supply gratifying recollections. The answer of O'Connell himself 
 became the principal subject of curiosity, and that answer was given at 
 a Repeal meeting, held in Dublin, on the 9th, as reported in the Dublin 
 Monitor of the same evening. After a speech, de omnibus rebus, Mr. 
 O'Connell proceedtid, in the following classic terms, to descant upon 
 Dr. Cooke's challenge : 
 
 " I must soon be upon my road for Cork ; I am sorry for this, as it would amuse 
 me to have some leisure to reply to my friend Bully Xooke, the cock of the North. 
 (Laughter.) He is a comical fellow; he invites me to a conference, and the mode 
 he takes of conveying that invitation is by writing me the most insulting letter he 
 could possibly pen. What a way of coaxing me to do the thing. (Laughter.) 
 Why he'd coax the birds off the bushes. (Laughter.) I admire the talent exhibited 
 in his letter. There is a good deal of talent in it. It amused me exceedingly when 
 I read it first, and I read it over twice for the pure pleasure of seeing what a clever 
 cock of the North he was. (Laughter.) But, Sir, it came upon me by surprise. 
 I mentioned to a friend of mine — by the way oi'nsking an advice, as people do when 
 they have made up their own minds on the subject — th« contents of this letter ; and 
 ray friend, who understood me to say, that not only was the challenge given, but that 
 I had accepted it, said to me, •'my judgment is this : I think he was a fool for send- 
 
^0 
 
 ing til* challenge and y«u are a foo for aecepting it ' (Laughter.) Oh no, said I, 
 now stop a while, you are mistaken, neitnerof us arc fools. There is more wit about 
 the anger of Daddy Cooke than you imagine. It is a mere plan of his, for when 
 does he send to me? On Wednesday morning when I was going off to Westmeath. 
 — (hear, hear.) — I got a letter on that morning, signed, I thought, 'John Cooke.' I 
 won't say positively what the signature w«s, but it was challenging mc to a political 
 discussion. It was not half the length of the document that appeared in the news- 
 papers, nor the one-tenth part of it ; but, when I saw the signature, I recollected 
 that I had read an authorised contradiction in the Ulster Times, that Dr. Cooke had 
 any such intention as that of challenging me ; — that is, he told them he would not, 
 and yet he afterv/ards did so. Why, he t^ld a lie in his own person, in the first 
 instance ; for the authorised contradiction was authorised by him, and it was as if 
 he signed the contradiction one day, and denied the next day his having done so. 
 (Cheers.) I am in the habit of throwing into the fire every anonymous letter I re- 
 ceive — every letter without a signature in it goes, and those I conceive to bear ficti- 
 tisus signatures in they go also, — (laughter) — so it was with the document I speak 
 of. I had read about five lines of it over when I flung it into the fire — I am sorry for 
 it; for had I thought it was of value, 1 would have kept it as a curiosity ; but, 
 even had I preserved it, of what usa would his challenge have been, for I was going 
 that morning to Westmeath ? That day, I could do nothing.^the next day I could 
 do nothing, for I was engaged at the meeting and dinner at Muliingar. The day 
 after I could do nothing, for I had to come right to town in time for this day's 
 meeting of the Association. To-morrow I will be in Kilkenny or Carlow, and go 
 on to Fermoy, and the next day attend the Munster meeting in Cork ; then, on the 
 13th, I have to be in Dungarvan ; on the l^th, I have to come up to attend the great 
 reform meeting on the following day, the I5th; on the Saturday morning, a meeting 
 of this Association ; on the I8th and I9th, I must be in Belfast ; on the 21st, by means 
 of railways, I will arrive at Leeds — remain there till the 22d ; on the 23d, 1 must be 
 at Leicester ; and on the 25th, be in London^(long cheers) — so that by that calcula- 
 tion, my worthy cock of the north — (laughter) — knows I could not comply with his 
 letter, and therefore he sends to me. Now, let him crow as much as he pleases — 1 
 consent to it. He is entitled to the benefit of his trick, and as it was a good trick, 
 why let him have the benefit of it. He throws out in his letter an excuse that he is 
 a theologian, but would introduce no questions of theology. Now I tell him this — I 
 am not a bit afraid of him on questions of theology. (Cheering.) That is hi* trade, 
 though it is not mine ; but I challenge him to this — let him assail my religion in one 
 of the Belfast newspapers, and if he does not get an answer, let him write me down 
 any name he pleases. (Loud and continued cheers and laughter.) But I won't cork- 
 lend wilii hitn, nor am I such a blockhead as to take up a political question with him, 
 (Hear, hear.) I have no notion to give him that advantage, which would be this — 
 he is at the head of the Presbyterians of Ulster, and if I was to go argue politfcs with 
 him, it would be admitting that I was an antagonist of theirs in politics. (Cheers.) 
 1 am placed, by my education and convictions, it is true, in a diflference of religious 
 tenets with the Presbyterians, as they are all to mine ; but I am no antagonist in 
 politics with them ; on the contrary, I am most desirous to serve the Presbyterians ia 
 every way in my power — (hear) — and if, in my present struggle, I succeed, it will be 
 as much for their benefit as for that of the Roman Catholics. (Cheers.) Oh, no, 
 Daddy Cooke, I will not gratify your trick- —(laughter) — but if this motive was not 
 in my way, and if it did not compel me to reject your challenge, I would reply to 
 you, and say to you, you come upon lue in a hurry ; you will be so good as to remem- 
 ber, when this question was before Parliament, that in my opening speech I occupied 
 the House for five hours." 
 
 Mr. Reynolds — " Five hours and a-half." (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. O'CoNNELL — " Aye, five hours and a-half, for a man that had his watch out 
 counting time got tired of the occupation. (Laughter.) You ought to remember, 
 I would say, that Mr. Spring Rice replied to me in a speech of six hours ; and I 
 wish to know how, in one day, the cock of the north and 1 could battle it out— go 
 through the entire of the business ? I would have an advantage. I am accustomed 
 to fasting and he is not (Laughter.) Small blame to him." (Roars of laughter.) 
 
 It may well be supposed that the publication of this worse than 
 bungling explanation, couched, as it was, in terms of blackguardism, 
 which would have been tolerated in no society except that of the Corn- 
 
21 
 
 Exchange, neltlier satisfied the public mind nor allayed the excitement 
 which had been progressively growing up. On the contrary, the 
 sympathetic contagion rapidly spread throughout the country districts ; 
 and, whilst the Repealers durst neither pit their champion against his 
 opponent, nor recede from the embarrassing dilemma in which they 
 had placed him, they struggled, with enfeebled energies and with pal- 
 pably hesitating councils, against the overwhelming torrent of public 
 opinion which had already begun to set in. Though considerable pro- 
 gress had been made in fitting up the Pavilion, at the lower end of 
 Chichester-street, for the purposes of the intended dinner, yet, in the 
 sporting world, bets were freely offered that the Liberator would not 
 attend, and that the Committee and their friends would have the con- 
 solation of dining " alone in their glory." In these pitiable circum- 
 stances a crumb of comfort was unexpectedly ministered to them from 
 a quarter which roused the just resentment of the respectable portion 
 of the community, while it struck all classes with astonishment. Who, 
 in the moment of their direst need, came in to " Iieeze up" the hopes 
 of the Repealers, "but Andrew and his cutty gun," in the person of 
 John Gibson, Esq., Assistant Barrister for the County of Antrim — the 
 " estimable and excellent" individual a short timo previously eulogized 
 by Mr. O'Connell. In reference to the use which the latter gentleman, 
 in his first letter to Charles M-Alister, Esq., had made of Mr. Gib- 
 son's observations at a former Quarter Sessions, to the effect that 
 Belfast was the most criminal town in Ireland, Dr. Cooke, in his chal- 
 lenge, censured this statement as the effusion of a "bilious Barrister.' 
 On Tuesday, the 12th of January, Mr. Gibson opened the Sessions 
 here, as usual, with an address to the Grand Jury, and in this address 
 he thought it consistent with his public duty, and with the gravity and 
 dignity belonging to his official situation on the Bench, to make an 
 attack upon Dr. Cooke, in language which we forbear to characterize. 
 Lest we should be accused of partiality, we copy the Vindicator's re- 
 port of the observations which fell from his Worship on the occasion 
 mentioned. According to this friendly journal the Barrister said :— 
 
 " On the one hand, the observations made from this place may, possibly, to the 
 prolific mind of a great national leader, suggest appropriate materials for reiahation 
 against that place, where he may have thought the most extensive manufactories of 
 vituperation against himself, and those who tliink with him, are carried on. On the 
 other hand, the same observations may, to a ferocious divine, writhing imder the 
 pangs of tortured vanity, suggest a fit foundation for coarser sarcasm against the in- 
 dividual who did not happen to be sufficiently enlightened to discover that al! must 
 be peace and innocence, and bliss, within the influence of the sanctimonious bellige- 
 rent. It does appear to me, gentlemen, that there would be about as much justice 
 of holding me responsible for the dexterity of the orator as for the vulgarity cf the 
 priest." 
 
 This was strange language for a judicial functionary, officially en- 
 gaged in the administration of public justice, to employ in regard to a 
 private individual, who was not sisted before his court, and against 
 whom no charge had been preferred ; but, strange as it may seem, the 
 fact that it was used, is corroborated by the reports of the News-Letter 
 and the Whig, both of which agree with the above extract, almost 
 verhum verbo. The Chronicle report, too^ with the exception of one 
 word, which does not improve the case, is in substance the same. This 
 explanatory statement is necessary to a correct understanding of allu- 
 
22 
 
 tions to the circumstance above detailed, which will •ccur la the sub- 
 sequent portion of our narrative — but to return — 
 
 Dr. Cooke, as may be supposed, lost no time In replying to the ex- 
 traordinary speech of Mr. O'Connell, delivered on the 9th instant, so 
 soon as it was ascertained to have been correctly reported, In so far as 
 Mr. O'Connell's silence in regard to it, could be tuken as corrobora- 
 tion. Accordingly the following letter shortly afterwards appeared in 
 the newspapers : — 
 
 TO DANIEL 0'CONNEL.L, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 Belfast, \^th January, 1841. 
 
 "It is a mere plan of his ; for when does he send to me ? On Wednesday morning when I 
 was going off to Weatmeath. (Heir, hear.) I got a letter on that morning, signed, I thought, 
 ' John Cooke ;' I won't say positively what the signature was, but it was cha.lengiug me to 
 a political discussion. When I saw the signature, I rbcollbctbd that I had seen an 
 AUTHORIZED CONTRADICTION in the Ulster Times, that Dr. Cooke had any such in- 
 tention as that of challenging me; — that is, he told them he would not, and yet he afterwards 
 did so. (Hear, hear.) Why, he told a lib in his own person, in the first instance, for 
 the AUTHOrtizBD coNTR*DicTio>f was authorized f>y him, and it was as if he signed the can- 
 tradiction one day, and denied the next his having done so." — Dublin Monitor's Report of a 
 Speech, delivered on the 7th, Mid uncontradicted by Mr. O'Connell, 14th January, 1841. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell, I pity you ; indeed I do. And believe me, if I know my own 
 heart, I can adopt the words of the poet, and say, my ''pity is allied to loue." Yet 
 do not mistake me — it is not the love of approbation — for that were to merge the 
 blackness of your sin in the brightness of your talents. But it is the love oi forgive- 
 ness for nil the slander you have been tempted to utter against me, and of prayer, 
 that God would forgive you for all the falsehoods you have been tempted to utter 
 agaXwsi your own soul. And here, let me remind you, Mr. O'Connell, of one so- 
 lemn sentence of our Lord, " What is a man profited, if he should gain the whole 
 world, and lose his own soul ?'* or what would a man give in exchange for his soul ?'' 
 And now, Mr, O'Connell, do not, I beseech you, throw this letter into the fire ; 
 the" terrible remedy I propose to administer may be your turning point for eternity. 
 
 First, then, Mr. O'Connell, you have my entire pardon for all the uncivil epi- 
 thets you have bestowed upon me. For, surely, it you, as a gentleman can use 
 them, I as a Christian, am much more bound to forgive them. Secondly, Mr. 
 O'Connell, 1 forgive you for unceremoniously calling me a.liar. But while I do so, 
 I feel at liberty, nay, bound to defend myself against the foul imputation, and to 
 warn you against the deadly sin (your own church being the judge) into which you 
 have plunged. 
 
 Hear me, Mr. O'Connell, and hear me, ye misguided people, who are said so loudly 
 to have cheered him when I stood indicted before you on this foul charge ol lying ! 
 Were I guilty, what is my deserving ? I must skulk into bye-paths to hide my 
 dishonoured head. I dare not look into the faces of my beloved ones, lest they 
 should be reading the guilty records of a husband's or a father's dishonour — I dare 
 not meet my friends, lest they should shun me on the streets— I dare not ascend the 
 pulpit, the tribunal of truth, nor open the Bible, lest the lightnings of its page 
 should smite me. Ah ! Mr. O'Connell, yours is a profession that too often draws 
 its glory from making " the worse appear the better cause," and you may consider 
 it but a mere " trick of your trade," so unceremoniously to accuse me of deliberate 
 lying. And had you so accused me in a court of law, when you were a mere advo- 
 cate for another, I could have pitied the sad necessity that, in the world's opinion, 
 though surely not in God's approval, gave sanction to conventional falsehood. But 
 when you accuse me in a case where you are not advocate, but defendant — above all, 
 when you accuse me in a case where you profess to be a Christian, a ready champion 
 of your Church's doctrine, and a tried practitioner in her self-imposed austerities, — . 
 suiely, then, I am entitled to summon you into court, and to indict you before God 
 and your country. And now — o vary but a little the language of a distinguished 
 ornament of your own profession -*' 1 will tic you down to the nng of falsehood, 
 and I will bait you at it, till your testimony slmll cease to produce a verdict against 
 me, though human nature were as corrupt in my readers as in yourself.'' 
 
 I entreat you then, Mr. O'Connell, to look back upon the motto prefixed to this 
 letter, and to read again your accussation against me. And, now, stand up — rather 
 
23 
 
 lookup, if you can. Look higher — look up to God who sees your heart, and trf 
 whom you and I must give an account of every idle word — and hear me. 
 
 1. In what nM/nier of the Ulster Times A\A. you ever read any authorized state- 
 ment that I would not challenge you ? 
 
 What do you answer, Mr. O'Connell? Pardon me if I am compelled to give a 
 tougue to your silence. 
 
 Mr. O'Connell (Jor once in life apparently in perturbation) replies, I cannot 
 exactly tell in what number I saw it : but, as 1 have said it, the people will believe 
 it. So, hurrah for old Ireland, Repeal, and the Parliament in College Green! 
 (Loud cheers.) Ah! Mr. O'Connell, Mr. O'Connell — pardon me, when I feel 
 that, in a case so solemn, I approach the burlesque. But, Sir, I must " hold the 
 mirror up to nature ;" and there. Sir, in that ephemeral shout, which you purchased 
 at the expense of an everlasting falsehood — ever/asking', if not waslied out by the drops 
 of mercy — I say. Sir, in the purchase of that ephemeral shout lies at once the mys- 
 tery of your long-lived popularity, but the seal and the earnest of your approaching 
 aud inevitable degradation. 
 
 You TOLD A LIE 1 Yes, and you knew it when you told i:. But your popularity 
 was at stake, and — I shudder to write it— but — let conscience 6nish the sentence. 
 
 Was it Mirabeau who boasted that he had ruled over eleven millions of Frenchmen? 
 You, Mr. O'Connell, have boasted of ruling or representing eight millions of Irish- 
 men. Yet he was an idol but of four years : you have enjoyed the popular apo- 
 theosis of twenty. But your days are numbered. Had you met me like a man, the 
 chivalry — nay, perhaps the condescension — of the act had insured you, in any event, 
 against a diminution of honours. But to skulk from the conflict beneath the mean- 
 ness of a ya/seAooc? / ah! it will pursue you like your shadow— it will haunt yoor 
 very dreams — like the spirit of the murdered, it will " sit heavy" on the soul of your 
 eloquence, and the whisper of my humble name — of the man whom you abused and 
 belied behind his back, but whom you dared not to encounter face to face — will 
 drown in the ear of conscience the loudest shouts of that momentary popularity 
 which you purchased at the expense of every honest man's respect — and, what is worse, 
 at the expense of your own. 
 
 I do ask you, Mr. O'Connell, when you said you had read in the Ulster Times my 
 attthorized disclaimer of any intention to challenge you — did you believe it yourself? 
 And c^n you produce this moment one man in all Ireland that will say he believes 
 you ? 
 
 Perhaps you will plead that your memory deceived you. Take care, however, it 
 was not your imagination. And remember there are those to whom a good memory 
 is a most valuable appendage. After all, 1 should r.ot be surprised if your memory 
 were failing, as I perceive your eyesight is nearly gone, having mistaken my signature 
 for "John Cooke.'' And as you have not condescended to favour me with a reply, 
 so that I might feel at liberty to favour you again with my autograph for your future 
 direction, I recommend you to purchase i)/' Comfc's Belfast Almanack,* in which my 
 signature may be found, that you may explain to your fiiends by what process of 
 perverted or defective vision you came to a mistake so inconvenient for your repu- 
 tation. 
 
 You say I playtd a " trick'' upon you, and that I took you by " surprise ;" you 
 calculate your cometic motions to prove you have not " time" to meet me, and you 
 talk of your " five hours spent'' in Parliament, and of your wonderful powers of 
 "fasting." In the North we call this fudge — pray how do you call it? What will 
 they call it in Belfast, where you will have the whole 19th instant without a single 
 thing to do but sightseeing from ten in the morning till soiree time at seven in the 
 evening ? Don't say a word about the necessary parenthesis of a dinner. You know 
 you could " fast ;" and, as for myself, I dare make no boast of either my inclinations 
 or capacities in that line, but when I cry hunger or weariness, it will be time enough 
 to boast of yourself and to taunt me. Here, Mr. OConnell, you had nine good hours, 
 of which — be it reraemberetl — I gave you your will. Freely should I have given you 
 five, and contented' myself with four. Within that time 1 do believe that by God's 
 blessing, I should " have made an example of you ;" but you have saved me the trouble, 
 for by the public utterance of a notorious falsehood, you have " made an example of 
 yourself. " 
 
 You conclude your pitiable subterfuge by offering to encounter me in a theologi- 
 cal discussion ; and theology, you say is my trade. This is a miserable ruse that 
 would disgrace any other man ; but it got you another shout from the " groundlings," 
 
 [*A CORRECT Likeness of Dr. Cooke, with his autociaph, is to be seen in M' Comb's 
 Belfast Mmanack for IMl Ed.] 
 
24 
 
 which you hailed as the presage of my certain discomfiture. I do not wonder. Sir, 
 that you call my theology a trade. A man accustomed to sell truth for a puff of ap- 
 plause can never believe a man less venal than liimself. I allow you, tliLiefore, to 
 assume the full benefit of the sarcasm ; but not the benefit of the bravado with whicl'. 
 it is trumpeted. I take you at your word. I am ready to imp ugn, in the newspapers, 
 the sectarian and heretical dogmas of your church, upon one simple lonJition, for the 
 leasonableness of which 1 appeal to the good sense of the public and to your own 
 sense of shame. 
 
 The reason of my demanding a condition is this: 
 
 1. You stated, in Dublin, that you reco//ec/ei having? read, in the Ulster Tiities, 
 what never was written, printed, or spoken by rr.i ; and the gulls s!iouted. 
 
 2. You stated I had told one lie on one day, and another lie on the next ; and the 
 gr.lls shouted again. 
 
 Now, if, by producing the Ulster Times in which your statement is contained, 
 you prove that J <o/ii a Zw, and that you /oM no /»e, — then, I confes=!, I am unwor- 
 thy to meet you, and only wonder at your humility in condescending to challenge 
 me. But if you have defamed me and disgraced yourself, while I also might assert 
 your utter unworthiness of notice, I shall overlook it as something in the way of 
 your "trade," and barely require to conduct our discussion on such terms as shall 
 shield me from your genteel talent of invention. To protect myself, therefore, from 
 the exercise of this talent, my proposal is this: you obtain me, in one or more of 
 your own papers — say the Register and some other — one, two, or more columns per 
 ueek, fortnight, or as you please. You take for defence as much as I am allowed 
 for attack ; and thus, by God's blessing, I trust to open botli your eyes, and the 
 eyes of the multitude that shout after you, to the errors and heresies tiiat disfigure 
 your theology, and the disloyalties and the cruelties that disgrace your jurisprudence- 
 
 For yourself, 3Ir. O'Coimell, and all who "trade:" upon the deception of the 
 multitude, while I feel the pity due to the men, I cannot, and should not, repress, 
 the righteous indignation due to the religious or political cheats. For your country's 
 sake and your own, I would you had a better ''trade." I am not yet so old as you 
 but 1 have some knowledge of " what is in man,'' both from observation and the 
 word of God ; and of this I can assure you, while 1 warn you — that the man who 
 even makes a jest of truth, or delivers himself from a dilemma by means of a lie, 
 were he as cunning as the father of it, will yet be caught in his own snare, and liope- 
 les-Jy overwhelmed in the pit he has digged for others. And, further, let me tell 
 you from the same sources — never yet was tliere a man who employed his power or 
 popularity, not to enlighten reason, but to inflame the passions of iiis country, tl)at 
 did not sooner or later, kindle a fire that he could not extinguish, and perish in ths 
 flames of his own raising. Beware, Mr. O'Connell ! Your expedition to Belfast 
 perils the peace of the kingdom. You won't discuss with me, forsootli, because I 
 am a Presbvterian, and you are not politically opposed to Presbyterians. I 
 tell you, little for your comfort, Mr. O'Connell, tliere is not, to my knowledge, a 
 Presbyterian Repealer in Ulster — and I bless God that I can proclaim the glorious 
 news to the empire. Minor political diflferences there may be amongst us ; but in 
 opposition to you and Repeal, we present a united and indissoluble front. Had 
 you agreed to discuss with me calmly the question of Repeal the Ulster Presbyte- 
 rians, in common wiih their brother Protestants, would have litened as calmly. I 
 pay them no compliment when I say, they are a thinking people, and they see clearly 
 through you. Tliey see you can declaim, but dare not argue ; and they see you want 
 to overawe the Government, and to terrify the North by processions of physical 
 force. But again, I say, beware I If the peace of the country be disturbed, and 
 if, notwithstanding all the salutary precautions of Government, Belfast become 
 another Bristol, and property and life be sacrificed to the insatiab!e Moloch of your 
 vanity— upon your head and upon your conscience let all liie guilt descend. The 
 very men who, in their folly, called for you, are standing like the fabled wizard, 
 terrified at the apparition their own incantations have conjured uj) ; and, believe me, 
 I do truly read your own mind, when I tell you, yen would ^^ive a month of the 
 'Repeal Rent that you had never promised your fatal visit lo Belfast. Mark me, .Mr. 
 O'Connell, I am not speaking out of vanity, but I tell you, you u-ill never recover 
 the blow inflicted by a Presbyterian. You have begun to fall before tlicm, and «s 
 ^ure as ever Haman fell before Israel, so sure will you contiiias to RiU — iniless yoii 
 •ast oflf your vanity, and repent of your sins — which may God grant, I da most sin- 
 eerely and humbly pray^ For peaee *nd the truth's gak€ , 
 
 I remain, rour obsdteot servant, 
 
 H. COOKE. 
 
It may be added, that the Ulster Times formally contradicted the 
 statement of Mr. O'Connell, relative to the publication of the alleged 
 authorized paragraph, and offered to place its files at the disposal of 
 any one desirous of investigating the matter. This proposition was 
 scarcely necessary, as every reader of our local newspapers knew 
 perfectly well, that no such paragraph as that described had ever ap- 
 peared, and it was, therefore, physically impossible thsA. Mr. O'Connell 
 could ever have read it. 
 
 In the mean time, in conformity to Mr. O'Connell's published and 
 nouncements, the prevailing impression was, that he intended to carry 
 out the mad experiment of having processions along his line of march, 
 at least as far as Newry, in which town, preparations were actually 
 made for his reception upon a grand scale. It was well understood, 
 that if a procession were formed in Newry, scarcely any influence 
 whatever could have restrained the mob from accompanying Mr. 
 O'Connell on his way to Banbridge, and this event, a counter array- 
 would inevitably have been formed to stop the invading cortege. 
 Had a hostile collision between the two parties taken place, no hu- 
 man foresight can calculate the terrible consequences which might 
 have ensued — Ulster, and probably the whole of Ireland would at 
 this moment have been a scence of butchery and bloodshed, such as 
 Has not been known in Irish history during the last two centuries. 
 Horrible as were the scenes of 1798, they were but as feathers in the 
 balance, when compared with the still more murderous results, which 
 a miraculous interposition of heaven alone could have stayed, in the 
 event of O'Connell's having attempted to carry out his original pro- 
 gramme of a mob procession towards Belfast. All the military in 
 Ulster could not have kept the two parties asunder, and, while we 
 feel grateful to divine Providence for the issue, we almost tremble at a 
 retrospect of the dangers from which, as a nation, we have happily 
 escaped. 
 
 The authorities at Dublin Castle seem to have had tolerably correct 
 information, respecting the state of public feeling here, and the conse- 
 quent necessity of taking prompt measures for the public safety. 
 
 The 99th Regiment, in two detachments of 400 men each, was sent 
 down from Dublin in steamers specially engaged for that purpose by 
 order of the authorities at the castle. A considerable reinforcement 
 of the Enniskillen Dragoons was, also, marched from Dundalk to 
 Belfast ; and a large body of Artillery, with four pieces of cannon, 
 arrived frorti Chariemont, a day or two previous to the Repeal exhibi- 
 tion. These forces, in addition to the local garrison of Belfast, con- 
 stituted a military array of more than 2,000 men, including cavalry ; 
 and our town presented, for a time, all the external phenomena of a 
 besieged city. Extraordinary reinforcements of Police, under the 
 direction of Captain Flinter, arrived, to aid the local Constabulary, if 
 necessary, in the preservation of the public peace ; and our hitherto 
 tranquil community wore a gloomy aspect of bustle, confusion, and 
 threatening preparation, unequalled during the last twenty-five years. 
 Strong bodies of Military and Police were, also, stationed in Banbridge, 
 Dromore, and the intermediate towns on the expected line of O'Con- 
 nell's march, so as to be ready for action in the event of any emergency 
 arising. Nor were these precautions altogether superfluous, as the 
 
 B 
 
2(i 
 
 threatened Invasion of Down, by tlie frieze coats from the Louth and 
 Jonesborough mountains, and the " Redshanks" from the classic regions 
 of Killeavy and Forkhill ; the latter, consecrated in story by deeds of 
 darkness and of blood, inferior only in tragic celebrity to Wild Goose 
 Lodge, had spread throughout the rural districts of Down, and the 
 adjacent parts of Antrim, a noiseless, but deep and desperate excite- 
 ment, which expended not itself in words — action would have been its 
 characteristic, had the rumoured procession made its appearance. The 
 newspaper organs of Repeal afterward j found it convenient to repre- 
 sent the matter as a conspiracy to assassinate Mr. O'Connell person- 
 ally, but no assertion can be more false than this — it is a libel upoti 
 the Protestant eomn.unity of the North, as there is not an agitator 
 belonging to the Repeal brotherhood who might not, with entire safety, 
 perambulate the country, not only without molestation but without 
 insult. It was the intimation of a procession which created the dan- 
 ger ; and so determined were the Repealers upon their physical-force 
 display, that the Newry Examiner, one of Mr. O'Connell's own organs, 
 exultingly announced the fact, that his arrival in Lisburn would be 
 hailed by 4,000 sons of the Church, all marshalled in triumphal array ! 
 Is it any wonder, then, that the Protestant party felt alarmed, and 
 were prepared, if requisite, to take measures for their own protection "i' 
 In Dromore an immense crowd, accordingly, assembled on Monday, at 
 the time when Mr. O'Connell's carriage was expected to pass, and se- 
 veral figures, denominated by the populace as his effigies, were hanged 
 and burnt, with expressions of the utmost contempt. Similar excite- 
 ment prevailed in Hillsborough, and in Lisburn the hostile assemblage 
 were, if possible, more numerous and more determined in their resolu- 
 tion than at either of the places we have named. Placards, of which 
 the following are copies, had been previously issued, and their effect 
 was in the highest degree exciting. The 4,000 Repealers would have- 
 cut a sorry figure had they been so insane as to shew themselves ia- 
 formal array. Here are the placards referred to : — 
 
 "O'CONNELL'S INSULT TO THE NORTH [ 
 Protestants ! — A singular coincidence seems to occur at this finae — exactly twc> 
 centuries have elapsed since Phelim O'Neill, of notoriety, made rapid strides to over- 
 throw all that bore the name of Protestant, in the North of Ireland, until he was 
 signally defeated by a few of Lord Conway's troops, in Castle-street, Lisburn. And 
 once more our hitherto peaceful and quiet town is likely to be disturbed by a second 
 Phelim, who possesses a few of tlse talents, but wants the courage, of l:is predecessor. 
 Now, we, Piolestanls of Down and Antrim, will be the last to offend the laws of our 
 country, or offer a:: insult to the public peace ; but this we avow, if there be anv unu- 
 sual excitement caused by the entrance of Mr. O'Connell into town, or any thing in 
 the shape of a proces«ion, to disturb the public peace. And, further, if there be any 
 insult offered to even a school-boy, by any of his Kailrunt Infantry, we will treat 
 them to a thunder of Northern Repeal, that will astonish the brewers of treason and 
 sedition, to put to rout his dariint pisintrt/. 
 
 " Protestants of Down and Antrim! shew your loyalty to your Sovereign and 
 your cause, by attending, on Monday, the 18th instant, in the Market-square, at 12 
 o'clock, to assist the small remnant of her Majesty's troops, if necessary, and see the 
 defamer of the glorious character of Protestant Ulster pass through in peace, the 
 same way that other travellers do, upon more important matters than Repeal. 
 
 " God save the Queen !'' 
 
 "HURRAH FOR REPEAL! 
 " On Monday next, being the day appointed for the Big Beggaman's visit to t!ie 
 North, Joseph Jelly, Comptroller- General of the Lisnegarvy paupers, begs to state, 
 
27 
 
 \hal a procession of Dan's peculiar fraternity will meet thrir illuattious brother, at 
 * Darfynane the younger,' tiieir future residence, on the Hillsborough road, ft is 
 sxpected that all wlto know the advantajjes to be derived from the trade, by a Repeal 
 •of the lavr proln'biling the exercise of calling on the Union, will join heart and hand 
 in welcoming their esteemed friend, ' Dan, the Prince of Paupers,' " 
 
 At Lisburn, as well as at Dromore, an effigy, intended to represent 
 Mr. O'Connell, was borne along in solemn procession, so soon as it 
 ■was ascertained that the original had passed through in disguise. This 
 effigy was suspended to a tree, and, after hanging there the usual time, 
 flames were observed to burst from its mouth, till the whole body of 
 the image was gradually consumed, amidst the shouts and exultations 
 of the multitude, who afterwards bore away the shapeless head in 
 triumph. It was, however, distinctly understood, that, if O'Connell 
 had come through Lisburn, as a private individual, without any osten- 
 tition or public display, no injury would have been attempted beyond 
 the harmless accompaniment of a full chorus of groans and hisses ; but 
 when the degree in which his newspaper organs had roused the pas- 
 sions of the people is considered, it is, perhaps, fortunate that the ex- 
 periment was timeously abandoned, ^^'e now approach 
 
 THE ADVENT. 
 
 The Devil first saw, as he thought, the mail, 
 
 Its coachman and his coat ; 
 So instead of a pistol he cock'd his tail. 
 
 And seized hiai by the throat; 
 ' Aha,' quoth he, ' what have we here— ~ 
 
 'Tis a new barouche and an ancient peer !' 
 So he set him on his bos again, 
 
 And bade hxra have no fear." — Byrcn. 
 
 At five o'clock , on the morning of Saturday, January 16, 1841, Mr. 
 ■O'Connell started from Dublin in a private carriage, in company with 
 his nephew, P»Ir. Charles O'Connell, Tom Steele, the renowned Paci- 
 ficator of Clare, and Dillon Browne, M.P. for the County of Mayo, all 
 armed with blunderbusses, pistols, and other implements of war, in 
 order to be prepared for any adverse contingency that might arise 
 along the road. The parties travelled under fictitious names, and so 
 secretly was the expedition conducted, that, though in accordance with 
 an engagement solemnly contracted at the Corn-Exchange a week be- 
 fore, the " pocket kandkerchief full cf cheers'' was duly discharged at 
 the Linen-hall here, on the arrival of the cortege — yet not a solitary 
 echo responded to its contents. In fact, the '• boys" of Drogheda, 
 Dundalk, and Newry, had been prudently disappointed of their ex- 
 pected turn out, and the Liberator quietly crept into our town about 
 six o'clock in the evening, and took up his residence at the Royal 
 Hotel, Donegall-place, without so much as a welcoming peal of "mar- 
 row-bones and cleavers" from the musical " artizans" of Hercules- 
 street. For this prudential self-denial we are far from blaming 
 O'Connell — it was judicious, and would have merited our praise, had 
 it not been preceded by empty boastings, relative to the popular ovation 
 With which his entry would be greeted. The expected display had 
 been found impracticable and vain, and necessity was therefore turned 
 into the semblance of a virtue. O'Connell literally stole into our town 
 "as a thief in the night." As Mr. O'Connell hae generally made it & 
 
28 
 
 point to observe, with regularity, the forms prescribed by the Roman 
 Catholic Church, the upper portions of Donegall-street, together with 
 tlie adjacent streets, were filled, on Sunday forenoon, with crowds of 
 idle spectators, anxious to eatch a view of the Liberator going to Mass, 
 at the Chapel in Donegall-street ; but their curiosity was destined to 
 disappointment. He remained in his hotel during the day, but, like 
 the vanquished Peris in the Oriental fable, who, when taken captive 
 and confined in iron cages by the Dives, were regaled by their compa- 
 nions with the choicest odours, a special Mass was said in the hotel for 
 behoof of our hero of the spoiled procession. Hew the remainder of 
 the day was spent, we know not, and have no right to inquire ; but in 
 the evening a meeting was held in the Victoria News-room ( Vindicator 
 office), at which orations were delivered amidst tremendous shouts of 
 applause. We presume that the exercises of the evening were not 
 devotional, inasmuch as it is not the custom of ordinary Christians to 
 vociferate during sermon — to stamp upon the floor till a whole neigh- 
 bourhood is alarmed — or to address the preacher with " bravo, my 
 buck, go on" — " hear, hear, hurroo, ould Ireland for ever," " three 
 cheers for the Liberator," &c. Equally unusual is it for Christians, 
 who have assen^bled on a Sabbath night for religious purposes, to ad- 
 dress each other in under-tones to the following effect — " d yer 
 
 sowl for a whelp, ye've nearly tramped the toe aff me." We conclude, 
 then, that it was a Sabbath profanation meeting ; it was, consequently, 
 no inappropriate introduction to the agitation scenes about to be pub- 
 licly enacted on the two following days — and this naturally brings 
 us to 
 
 THE EXHIBITION, 
 
 PART I THE LEVEE. 
 
 " But yester-eve, so motionless around. 
 So mute was the wide plain, that not a sound 
 But the far torrent, or the locust bird 
 Hunting among the thickets could be heard. 
 Yet hark ! what discords now of every kind, 
 Shouts, laughs, and screams are revelling in the wind. 
 The neigh of cavajry" Moore. 
 
 Bright rose the sun at the appointed hour on Monday, the 1 8th day 
 of January, in the year one theusand eight hundred and forty-one ; 
 clear was the sky, glittering and hard the frost, and winter smiled as 
 propitiously as winter could be expected to do, upon the preparations 
 which were in busy progress at the Pavilion, in Chichester-street. 
 Up rose Daniel O'Connell — up rose Tom Steele, whose first care was 
 to ascertain the trustworthiness of his pike, and last, though not least, 
 up rose Dillon Browne, whose first orisons having been duly made for 
 the safety of his hair-trigger " bulldogs," he instituted a formal in- 
 spection of their working order, before entrusting himself to the society 
 of the " lovely and the good," by whom the portals of the Royal Hotel 
 were about to be speedily thronged. Up rose the Repealers, male and 
 female — up rose the Military and Police, while the din of arms, and 
 the enlivening notes of martial music pealed in all directions, and were 
 borne by the breeze in softened harmony through the far extending 
 vallies of the Lagan, in which responsive echoes were awakened, which 
 had lain voiceless amongst the hills since the days of Cuchullin. We 
 have said that we knew not how Mr. O'Connell had spent the residue 
 
29 
 
 of Sunclajj after private Mass, but this statemeut is not cliaracterized 
 by our accustomed accuracy in regard to matters of fact. The truth 
 is, it was dedicated to the holding of a sort of Levee, at which, numbers 
 of the " people" attended, and had the distinguished honor of shaking 
 hands with the Liberator. The forenoon of Monday was spent in a 
 similar style of " popularization," as a late Repealer of some notoriety 
 Avould have called it, and curious were many of the scenes which occur- 
 red. Mr. O'Connell made himself agreeable to all, and certainly did 
 the honors with all the dignified suavity of a regularly bred courtier, 
 while, by way of giving effect to his frequent sallies of Irish humour, 
 he studiously retained his rich Kerry brogue. The blunt valediction 
 of an old " artizan" of Hercules-street — " God bless you, Dan," was 
 well received ; and the exclamation of the Liberator after saluting a 
 lady, and then admiring her healthy condition — " why, my dear, you 
 look as well as if you had been fed upon Munster potatoes," elicited 
 boundless admiration. 
 
 On this day, too, at half-past twelve o'clock, a deputation from the 
 Trades of Belfast, headed by Mr. Charles Bradley, Mr. Owen Kerr, 
 &e., waited, by appointment, upon Mr. O'Connell, at the Royal Hotel, 
 and presented him with a congratulatory address in the name of the 
 whole body, in which address they announced themselves as decided 
 Repealers. Mr. O'Connell received them in a green figured dressing- 
 gown and black cap, and, in reply, delivered to them a semi-ethical dis- 
 course on the necessity and advantages of political moderation, as the 
 j)arties, he said, appeared to be " too angry with the Orangemen,' 
 while, on the question of Repeal, he was gratified to find that their 
 hearts were in the right place. These formalities being over, Mr. 
 O'Connell heartily shook hands with the delegates individually, many 
 of whom, as the Northern Whig remarks, " must have afforded him 
 considerable amusement by the blunt cordiality of their greetings, such 
 as "give me your hand, Dan ;" " here's a hand, Dan, my boy, with a 
 heart in it," &c., &c. But those who court popular favour must not 
 shrink from the occasional realization of their own theories of repub- 
 lican equality, else the magic secret of their power were gone for ever, 
 though, at the conclusion of the farce, they may, like Wilkes of " forty- 
 five" notoriety, confidentially whisper in the ears of friends, that, at no 
 period of their political lives, were they their own partizans. 
 
 No sooner was it known in Belfast that a number of individuals, 
 professing to represent the various Trades, had presented to Mr. 
 O'Connell the address above described, than the most indignant ex- 
 citement generally prevailed, and counter resolutions were immediately 
 adopted and published by overwhelming majorities of the several Trades 
 alleged to have been represented. The Printers, the Bookbinders, the 
 Bootmakers, &c , &c , all disclaimed the act which had been done in 
 their names by " self-appointed" individvials, so that the ruse which 
 had been adopted had the unexpected effect of bringing forth strong 
 Anti-Repeal declarations from influential bodies of industrious and re- 
 spectable workmen, whose sentiments might have remained unexpressed, 
 had an abuse so unwarrantable not been made of their names ; and, in 
 the respect alluded to, the occurrence which we have noticed was sin- 
 gularly propitious. But these are merely preliminary scenes, and 
 we must hasten to the proper business of the day. 
 
 " Nae man can tether time or tide, 
 
 The hour approaches, Tarn maun ride." 
 
PART II.— THE DINNER. 
 
 " Then horn for horn they stretch and strive — 
 Deil tak' the hindmost — on they drive, 
 Till all their weel swalled kytes belyve, 
 
 Are bent like drums." — Burns. 
 
 During the wliole of Monday Mr. O Connell stirred not abroad, and 
 did not so much as shew himself to the boyish crowds who, during the 
 day, occasionally assembled in the neighboui'hood of the Royal Hotel, 
 in the hope of catching a glimpse of one so renowned in agitation his- 
 tory, until about four o'clock in the afternoon, when he apj)eared at 
 one of the windows, and exhorted the parties to betake themselves in 
 quietness to their several residences. Six o'clock was the hour ap- 
 pointed for dinner, and this preparatory oration was consequently brief; 
 but, before detailing the after-dinner proceedings, it is necessary that 
 we should describe the locale of the scene, and the appearance which it 
 presented to the eye of a disinterested spectator. 
 
 The Pavilion, in which the entertainment took place, was the old 
 Victoria Theatre (Chichester-street), fitted up with wood-work for the 
 occasion, and certainly, in point of internal arrangement and temporary 
 decorations, it did no discredit to the taste of the parties who had 
 charge of the business, as they made the most of the materials which 
 had been placed at their command. The principal table was situated 
 at the north-west end of the building, while, at right angles to it, ten 
 tables, each calculated to accommodate one hundred persons, were ex- 
 tended towards the opposite extremity. Side galleries for the accom- 
 modation of ladies had been erected, while the orchestra was placed in 
 that quarter of the gallery which immediately fronted the chair. The 
 external covering of the gallery had a rather elegant and even rich 
 appearance, but the depending curtains were, if not orange, at least of 
 a colour which bore to it an exceedingly near resemblance, while the 
 fringes might have been taken indifferently for a gentle blue, or a still 
 more mitigated green. Behind the chair were two female figures 
 crowning O'Connell with what seemed to be, and most probably had 
 been intended for, a wreath of laurel, while on each side were banners 
 exhibiting national devices, one of which was a figure of Erin, with a 
 harp encircled with shamrocks ; but so coarse was the workmanship, 
 that, if the truth must be told, poor Erin had more of the bloated ex- 
 terior of a shebeen house-keeper than of the angelic idealism naturally 
 associated with a personification of the " Emerald Isle.' Another 
 emblematical representation of the same subject was placed in front of 
 the orchestra, with a wolf-dog reposing at the lady's feet, and near it 
 was a landscape sketch of Darrynane Abbey, while the mottos on 
 these, and several other illustrative decorations, were occasionally ill- 
 spelled. On one side of the gallery was placed a cast of her Majesty 
 Queen Victoria — on the other, a bust of Prince Albert, while similar 
 likenesses of O'Coiniell and Napoleon Bonaparte adorned the front of 
 the orchestral department, in addition to the decorations already no- 
 ticed. The room was lighted by several rich looking lustres, while a 
 profusion of party-coloured lamps, tastefully arranged, at intervals, 
 j&mongst festoonings of laurel and other evergreens, imparted to the 
 
31 
 
 scene a truly picturesque effect. Conslderln;^ their relative lusij^ulfi- 
 cance, as a party, the Repealers had exerted themselves in order to 
 bring off the affair in a manner as creditable to their cause as circum- 
 stances permitted. Shortly before seven o'clock, Mr. O'Conneil en- 
 tered the room in company with ;i. number of gentlemen, and imme- 
 diately took his seat at the principal table. Robert M'Dowell, Esq., 
 (the only Liberal Protestant who could be prevailed upon to accept the 
 situation,) took the chair amidst loud cheering, and, as no blessing was 
 thought necessary on the occasion, the assemblage fell to work without 
 a moment's delay, and it is only justice to add, that, during a good, 
 half-hour, at least, " no slackness there was found." . On the right oi' 
 the chair were the following gentlemen, besides Mr. O'Conneil, viz. : — 
 John Sinclaire, Esq. ; John Mai'tln, Esq., jun., (Killileagh) ; Thomas 
 Steele, Esq., (the Pacificator); John Wallace, Esq., (Attorney) ; Chas. 
 M'Alister, Esq.; Edward O'Rorke, Esq.; James Russell, Esq.; Chas. 
 O'Conneil, Esq. On the left were Dr. Denvir ; Ov/en and Alexander 
 M'Mullen, Esqrs., (Castlewellan) ; Alderman Smith, (Drogheda) ; 
 Robert Boyd, Esq. ; John M'Adam, Esq ; Dr. M'Laughlin, (Roman 
 Catholic Bishop of Derry) ; S. Carson, Esq. ; Henrj Murney, Esq. ; 
 Joseph Redfern, Esq. ; John Boyd, Esq., (Blackstaff Flax Mill) ; 
 James M'Conkey, Esq. ; Thomas MConkey, Esq. ; John Workman, 
 Esq., &c , of Belfast. An abundant array of Priests, from all 
 parts of the country, was in attendance, and. a few (not exceeding 
 half-a-dozen) Liberal Protestants, whom curiosity alone had brought 
 to the scene, were to be found stealthily ensconced in the bye-holes 
 and hiding-places of the meeting, as if anxious to avoid popular 
 observation. On the other hand might be seen the scouts and out- 
 runners of the Vindicator, slyly fishing them out, and noting" their 
 several identities with an accuracy which must have caused to the par- 
 ties concerned no slight uneasiness, as, with the possible exception of 
 the Chairman himself, and two other Protestant gentlemen who sat 
 near him, one of whom is not now a resident in Belfast, not one of the 
 Protestant remainder ever was, or nov/ is, a Repealer ! We have said 
 that the tables were calculated for the accommodation of 1,000 persons, 
 but those on the extreme right and left of the Chairman were, in a 
 great measure, unoccupied, while the lower parts of several others were 
 thinly peopled, and, allowing 40 feeders to the principal table, the whole 
 dinner party could not have exceeded 84'.\ or, at the most, 900. We 
 say nothing- as to the quality of the bulk of the company, and equally 
 imperative is our silence in regard to the " galaxy of beauty" by which 
 the upper boxes were adorned. Some of the dresses exhibited were 
 certainly showy enough, and did no discredit to the artistical talents 
 of their makers ; but beyond this candid acknowledgment our informa- 
 tion does not enable us to go. Indeed, were our abilities in this re- 
 gard superior to what they really are, we would hesitate ere we em- 
 ployed them, when the power of the sex, as described by the Lady in 
 Hudibras, is taken into account. 
 
 '' We make and execute all laws, 
 
 Can judge the judges and the cause, 
 Prescribe all rules of right and wxm.fi. 
 To the long robe and the longer tongue 
 
 "\Vo ru'e in every public meeting. 
 And make men do what we judge fitting-, 
 Are magistrates in all great towns, 
 Wheic ii'.t'a do nothiut; but wear gowus," 
 
32 
 
 We must, therefore, wear our " gown" and hold our peace, unless we 
 would covet, as we do not, a renewed exhibition of the Croinwellian 
 scene, in which 
 
 *' Thp oyster women locked tbeir fisli up, 
 And trudged away to cry — No Bishop." 
 
 We have already intimated that the Repealers did not think their 
 dinner worth the invocation of a divine blessing, and, of course, they 
 could not be expected to take the trouble of returning thanks to the 
 Divine Being for it. Accordingly, a^ter no thanks whatever had been 
 returned, and the cloth removed, the following loyal and constitutional 
 toasts were given from the Chair, viz. : — 
 
 " The Queen," " Prince Albert," " The Princess Royal," " The 
 Duke of Sussex, and the rest of the Royal Family resident in Eng- 
 land," Lord Melbourne and Her Majesty's Ministers," &c., &c. At 
 length came the toast of the evening, " The Health of Daniel O'Con- 
 nell, Esq., M. P.," which was received with tremendous cheering, and 
 waving of handkerchiefs. It is impossible for us to record every thin» 
 said by Mr. O'Connell in the speech which followed, and we shall, 
 therefore, confine our attention to a number of the most important 
 passages. He began by professing himself lost in admiration at the 
 enthusiasm of the assemblage, and emphatically asked — is this Ulster? 
 Why the enthusiasim of the warm Southern heart is nothing to yours 
 —here, if you once warm, you'll never grow cool. (Laughter, and 
 cries of " get on the table." Mr. O'Connell accordingly got on the 
 table, and proceeded.) What I want to know is, why I did not come 
 sooner amongst you, for I never met men after my own heart till I 
 came here. (Cheers.) Will they call this — have they ever called this the 
 " Black North ?" To me it is the bright and brilliant North, (pointing 
 
 to the ladies' gallery,) no North contains such stars as these This 
 
 galaxy of beauty would ornament any region upon earth. I am bound 
 to admit, that there is a factitious appearance given to our present 
 meeting, not so much from the zeal and energy of our friends, as the 
 craft and activity of our enemies — from the boxing buffoon of a Divine, 
 (laughter,) up to the truculent threatening of the worst instrument of 
 faction, and a slight bit of hypocrisy amongst it. (Laughter.) Mr. 
 O'Connell then went on to repudiate in strong terms, the idea of his 
 having eomt; to invade Ulster — he denied that Dr. Montgomery and 
 the Belfast Reformers had been badly treated at the Reform Meeting 
 lately held ; In Dublin and he characterized, as untrue, the charge that 
 he ( VIr. O Connell) had ever calumniated the Inhabitants of Belfast. He 
 then referred to the danger to which he had exposed, not only his 
 popularity, but his life, in opposing the Trades' combinations in Dub- 
 lin, when he found them tending to produce criminality, and he added 
 — when coming here, you know I did not flatter any of you before I 
 arrived ; but, on the contrary, perhaps I was not only indiscreet, but 
 worse, in taking up the Assistant Barrister's charge of criminality ; 
 but 1 allude to it, to shew that I am not flattering the Reformers of 
 Belfast. I am incapable of it, but I owe it to them, and to myself, to 
 state, that I never included them all in my censure, and, at present, I 
 wish to exclude them from censure of any kind — (hear, hear) — ^l wish to 
 wipe out the old score completely ; and here I am now offering Re- 
 formers of every class in Ulster to forget the past — to look upon what 
 
33 
 
 has occurred as a dream at best,, and to join with me, heart and hand, 
 in the struggle for Old Ireland. (Cheers.) Let those refuse me who. 
 choose — at least, I will have cleansed my heart, and cleansed my con- 
 science — if I have given blows, I have received them — I forgive my 
 share — am sorry for what others suftered, and I cast open the door for 
 all to perfect reconciliation. (Cheers.) Mr. O'Coimell next proceeded 
 to deny the charge of sectarianism, which had been preferred against 
 him, and, in doing so, said — there never was a man more calumniated 
 than I have been, or, at all events, more abused ; but, whether it be 
 abuse or calumny — there is one thing certain, that I have never been 
 charged, either by friend or foe, v/ith one single sentence reflecting on 
 the spirit of bigotry or fanaticism in the religion of another. (Hear.) 
 On no other occasion before was I charged, even by the most virulent 
 calumniator, or my deadliest foe, with one word of bigotry, for the en- 
 tire tenor of my speeches has been the reverse, emanating, as they did, 
 from my heart and judgment. I never allowed a thought of bigotry 
 or of animosity to my fellow man, on account of his religion, to pass 
 through my mind. (Hear.) This fact, he said, he wished to proclaim 
 to the men who had assembled that day, to bar his way on the Queen's 
 high road ; and he proceeded to narrate the services which he had done 
 for Orangemen, even after their own party had deserted their cause. 
 The Corporation Officers of Dublin, instead of applying to the RecordeVy 
 or Dr. Lefroy, had come to him, and even the Deputy Grand Master 
 of the Grand Orange Lodge, Sir A. B. King, who would have been 
 left to starve in misery, but for his (Mr. O'Connell's) exertions, and he 
 added — 1 would go one hundred miles to meet an Orangeman if I could 
 serve him, and I would do as much for an Orangeman, as I would for 
 a Catholic, Mr. O'Connell then read a warm letter of acknowledg- 
 ment from Sir A. B. King, and proceeded to say, in reference to the 
 Northern Orangemen — " I laugh at their opposing my progress, on 
 the ground that that j)rogress was conceived or entered upon, in the 
 spirit of religious or sectarian bigotry, or with the intention of insult- 
 ing any sect or party. (Cheers.) I leave such objects to the Cookes 
 of a festivity of a different description from this." (Laughter and 
 cheers.) Again, he said — " I have lived but for the promotion of free- 
 dom — unrestrained freedom of conscience to all classes and sects of the 
 human family — I have lived but to be the advocate of civil and religious 
 liberty all over the world — 1 have lived only for the advocacy of those 
 exalted objects, and I have not, I think, lived in vain. I have not as- 
 sumed the attitude of the gladiator, however, nor of the ferocious Di- 
 vine." (Laughter and cheers.) " I hail the amalgamation of Protes- 
 tants, Presbyterians, and Catholics. The principle that directs such 
 an union, has been the principle on which all the acts of my life have 
 been founded.'' (Cheers.) Mr. O Council then instituted a compari- 
 son between the English constituencies and the Irish, considered in re- 
 ference to population, and he argued that Ireland was inadequately 
 represented. In regard to Dr. Cooke's challenge, he said, he was 
 ready to give him not two, but six, or even twenty-six hours, if he 
 wished, on any subject connected with civil or religious liberty. (Cheers.) 
 After a lengthened review of the " transition state" of society on the 
 Continent and in America, as compared with a former period, the 
 hon. and learned gentleman sat down, amidst prolonged cheering, and 
 
34 
 
 rounds of the Kentish fire, Avhich after some tune were suppressed, 
 through the interference of Dt'. Denvlr. 
 
 The following toasts were given from the chair, and were duly res- 
 ponded to — " The Right Rev. Dr. Denvir and the Catholic Hierarchy 
 of Ireland ;" " Right Rev. Dr. M'Laughlin, Catholic Bishop of Derry ;" 
 " Civil and Religious Liberty." " The clergy of all denominations 
 who have honoured us this evening with their presence," (there being 
 no clergy of any denomination, but cne in attendance, the Rev. George 
 CroUy, Roman Catholic Curate, replied in a speech of tedious magni- 
 tude, which was brought to a premature close, in consequence, it was 
 understood, of a hint privately conveyed to the Rev. gentleman from 
 Mr. O'OonnelL) " R. D. Browne, Esq., M.P. for Mayo. (Here Mr. 
 Edward Campbell rose and asked Mr. O'Connell, whether, since he 
 had given his son John to all Ireland, he would not give Dillon Browne 
 to Belfast ? Mr. O'Connell was understood to reply, that Dillon 
 Browne was just such a man as Belfast wanted.) (Cheers) "Mr. 
 John O'Connell," " William Sharman Crawford, Esq. and Vote by 
 Ballot," " Thomas Steele, Esq.," " Alderman Smith," " John Sin- 
 claire, Esq. and the Volunteers, of '82," &c. The principal speakers^ 
 after Mr. O'Connell, were, Dr. Denvir, Dr. M'Laughlin, Rev. D. 
 Curoe, Charles G. DufiFy, Esq., R. D. Browne, Esq, M.P., &c. The 
 party Uroke up about two o'clock in the morning. 
 
 PART in.— THE REPEAL MEETING— ITS PRELIMI- 
 NARIES AND ADJUNCTS. 
 
 • Fy, let us a' to tbe ' Royal,' 
 
 For there will be bickerin' there, 
 For Daniel's light horse are to muster,. 
 
 An' O, how tbe heroes will swear ! 
 An' there will be Daniel, commander. 
 
 An' Tammie the battle to win ; 
 Like brothers they'll stand by each other,, 
 
 Sae knit in alliance and kin." 
 An' there will be blaek-uebbit Johnnie^ 
 
 The tongue o' the trump to thenl'a' ; 
 An' he getna h foi* his haddin' 
 
 The deil gets nae justice ava' ; 
 An' there will be Mayo's blithe birkie^ 
 
 A boy nae sae black at tbe bane, 
 But as for his fine nabob fortune 
 
 We'll e'en let the subject alane." 
 
 Burns''s Heron Ballads, No, 2. 
 
 Monday night passed away tranquilly, in consequence of the admir- 
 able disposition of the Military and Police forces, and Tuesday arrived 
 with all its bustling preparation for the important drama which yet 
 remained to be enacted. Strangers, from all parts of the country, 
 poured into town, influenced, for the most part, by curiosity to hear 
 Mr. O'Connell's far-famed oratory. Accordingly, at an early hour in 
 the forenoon, the neighbourhood of the Pavilion was literally besieged 
 by crowds anxious to obtain admissionj but no disorder of any kind 
 ensued. 
 
35 
 
 The leading- Protestant Liberals having heard of Mr. O'Connell's 
 conciliatory overture in his speech of Monday night, resolved to send 
 a Deputation to the Royal Hotel, to wait upon him, for the purpose of 
 explaining- the reasons of their refusal to honour him with their com- 
 pany at dinner. A long conference took place between the parties, of 
 which an official account was afterwards published in the Whig, by 
 the gentlemen who composed the Deputation ; and, as this is a Jocu- 
 ment of some importance, we make no apology for its insertion. After 
 a few introductory remarks, the Deputation, addressing the Norther7i 
 Whig, proceed to say — 
 
 " It was necessary, in eoiirtesy to Mr. O'Connell, and in justice to onr own feel- 
 ings, that the reasons which prevented us from joining on the present occasion, in 
 giving that gentleman a hospitable reception to our town, shou'd be distinctly ex- 
 plained. These reasons were stated to be two-fold : — First, — because the dinner was 
 in onr judgment a portion of the demonstration in favour cf Repeal, with which the 
 greater number of us conid not conscientiously concur. Mr. O'Connell, with per- 
 fect fiankness and couitesy, admitted that tins was substantially the fact. The se- 
 cond reason was of a less general nature, and although it originated in the very- 
 dissensions, which it was our object to heal, our case would have been incomplete had 
 it not been distinctly stated, inasmuch as some of our number were not so unfavour- 
 able to Repeal, as to have allowed that consideration, alone, to keep them back from 
 welcoming Mr. O'Connell as a distinguished Reformer. This reason was, tliat Mr. 
 OConnell's visit had been principally brought about bj', and turned to the account 
 of a small party, who, to the best of our judgment, but without imputing to them 
 any improper motive whatever, had acted injudiciously as regarded the cause of Re- 
 form, by exhibiting an apparently sectarian spirit, and by what we felt as an offensive 
 tone, and unjustifiable attacks, directed against the Liberal Protestants of Relfast, 
 and against such of the Catholics also as did not concur in their views. As an illus- 
 tration of the sectarian spirit which was thus unhappily introduced among us, the 
 demand put forward at one time for a certain number of civic officers, &c., from the 
 Catholic body, was particularly specified, and Mr. O'Counell immediately observed 
 that he could not be accused of countenancing this proceeding, as he had laken an 
 early opportunity, in a letter to the Right Rev. Dr. Blake, strongly to condemn any 
 such principle of selection. It was stated, however, in explanation of the feelings of 
 the gentlemen present, that by his neglect of the plain and temperate statement of 
 the Editor of the Whig, ' with respect to the original ground of dispute, and by the 
 tone of his letters to the Vindicator,^ and speeches on several oceasions, he appeared 
 to us to have descended from the high ground to which he had been called as an arbi- 
 trator o^ owv disputes, in order to make himself a party to them ; insomuch that his 
 visit to Belfast was considered in the li^ht of an attempt to strengthen one divi.-iou of 
 lleformers against the rest. 
 
 " Mr. O'Connell referred, on this subje<;t, to the hostility shown to him by the 
 Whig , notwithstanding his wishes and attempts to be of service to the proprietor, a*, 
 considerable personal sacrifice. We endeavoured to show h.ini the strong provocation 
 which the Whig had received on several occasions ; and further called his attention 
 to the fact, that, if the Whig had been occasionally too persevering and acrimonious 
 in controversy, as Hoany among us felt that it had, at least it had always advocated the 
 broad principles of civil and religious liberty, without a tinge of sectarianis-ii, in 
 which respect it perfectly expressed our sentiments. Mr. O'Connell was reminded, 
 also, that the Reformers of Belfast, of all classes, had given, on all occasions, proofs 
 of zeal and sincerity, had made sacrifices, and gained results, which ought to have 
 exempted them from liis censure, if it did not secure them his approbation. It was on 
 this part of the subject, that a Catholic gentleman took occasion to refer to the sub- 
 scriptions of Catholics and Protestants to the expenses of the last election, as noticed 
 in your paragraph, but it was expressly stated, and confirmed by every one present, 
 that the Catholics of Belfast contributed liberally in full proportion to tiicir means, 
 and that our only object was to shew what the Protestant Lil)erals had done, and not 
 in the least degree to insinuate a doubt of what we all acknowledged and admired, 
 the honest, fervid, and liberal patriotism of the Catholic body. All this part of the 
 conversation was merely explanatory of our feelings and views on the subject of his 
 visit to Belfast, and of the entertainment given in his honour. Our main obicctj 
 
36 
 
 iioffcvcr, as aheady statfed, was, not to recal the misfortunes and misunderstandings of 
 *the past, but to avert their recurrence for the future. For this purpose, we conceived 
 it necessary, on the one hand, that the tcnc and temper, which had not only divided 
 Catholics from Piotestants, but Catholics from Catliolics also (as vi-as evinced by the 
 fact, that several of our most respectable Catholic fellow-townsmen were present and 
 concurring), should be abandoned ; that, on the other hand, we were convinced that 
 the M'hig would be as willing for conciliation, and as well disposed, in Mr. O'Con- 
 nell'sown language, to forget and forgive the blows they had given and received, and 
 as ready to abandon all unnecessary recurrence to past grievances, as we were our- 
 selves ; and that we trusted ]\Ir. O'Connell would exert his great influence in the 
 ri^ht direction, to bring about thii desirable icsult. Pie was assured, that he was 
 quite misinformed, if he had been led to believe that he had any personal enemies 
 amonif the Liberal party here; and that, on the contrary, it was paiirful ts us to 
 liave been compelled to hold back from contributing to his hospitable reception ; a'ld 
 that, had the circumstances permitted it, with honour ot consistency, as regarded our 
 feelint^s and principles, we would cordially have joined in welcoming to Belfast, a 
 man, to whose distinguislied public services in the cause of liberty and humanity, we 
 all felt ourselves deeply indebted. 
 
 " Mr. O'Connell's manner, throughput, was distinguished by courtesy and cordia- 
 lity. He declared, with much warmth, that this interview and conversation, with so 
 many of the Liberal inhabitants of Belfast, had given him the highest gratification, 
 and that lie trusted it would tend to produce the effect which we had in view. He ex- 
 pressed himself as being willing and anxious to receive such information and sugges- 
 tions as we might be able to afford ; and, although he did not at the moment see pre- 
 cisely in what manner he could best promote our praiseworthy object, yet he desired 
 us to be convinced, that he was as deeply inrpressed with the importance of union 
 amono- Reformers, and as decidedly opposed to all sectarianism as ourselves; and he 
 finally assured us, in a most impressive and energetic manner, that whatever he found 
 he could do, to promote the permanent union of the Liberal party in Belfast, he 
 would. RoB£RT James Tennent. 
 
 Robert Griiishaw. 
 
 Belfast, 22d January, 1811. James Macnamaka. 
 
 With all due respect to the authors of this document, we may take 
 leave to remark, that it is far more fulsomely complimentary towards 
 the Agitator than we would have expected, from the character of the 
 men whose names are attached to it ; but we have no right to quarrel 
 with their taste. The great value of this document is the official proof 
 which it contains, not only upon Liberal Protestant, but upon Roman 
 Catholic authority, of the sectarian exclusiveness attempted by the 
 Repeal clique in Belfast, as detailed in the introductory portions of 
 Our narrative. Mr. Macnamara, one of the gentlemen, who signed 
 the above paper, is himself a respectable Roman Catholic." 
 
 It is time that we should return to the Pavilion, in order to chronicle 
 the doings that took place therein — and here it must be observed, that 
 the admission of the public was regulated by tickets varying in price 
 from 6d. to 2s. 6d. each — the sixpenny audience being located in the 
 body of the house, the shilling payers being treated to the gallery, while 
 the half-crown men were politely shown to the platform. About 1 1 
 o'clock the public were let in gradually, and in half-an-hour the body 
 of the house was tolerably filled, the galleries crowded, and the plat- 
 form rather sparingly furnished. Twelve o'clock came, but with it 
 came not Mr. O'Connell, and considerable uneasiness began now to be 
 manifested at this delay. Half-past twelve, and still no Mr. O'Connell 
 
 the Priests, some score of whom were rambling about the platform, 
 
 might be seen anxiously scrutinizing the mass of faces before them, for 
 the purpose of scanning their political character, and it was evident, 
 from the suppressed bustle that prevailed, and the frequent consulta- 
 
tioiis which took place, that it was feared too many Anti-Repealers had 
 got inside the walls. It was quietly whispered, too, that Dr. Cooke 
 was about to make his appearance, and the faces of the clerical group 
 wore a curious expression of dismay, not unmixed with hope, that, by 
 some dexterous coup de main, the dreaded result might be avoided. In 
 the mean time an alarm was got up that the galleries were sinking, 
 and scores of individuals hastily quitted their places, paid for extra- 
 platform tickets, and placed themselves, as they imagined, beyond 
 the reach of danger. 1 he impatience of the crowd at Mr. O'Connell's 
 delay momentarily increased ; and though it was impossible to guess 
 with precision the relative strength of the two parties, yet it was very 
 evident that the Anti-Repealers had mustered in no inconsiderable 
 numbers. In order to make sure of the matter, an individual mounted 
 upon the left side of the platform and unfurled a green banner, on 
 which was inscribed in large characters the word " Repeal." At sight 
 of tills emblem the Repealers shouted vociferously, while the Unionists 
 maintained a steady silence ; and, to any one who could command a view 
 of the assemblage, it was plain that the parties were nearly equally 
 divided, or, if any difference existed, that the majority was not in favour 
 of the Repealers. This experiment decided the future movements of 
 the day, and in a short time afterwards the public were respectfully 
 informed that Mr. O'Connell was not to be expected in the Pavilion 
 at all; but that he would address the meeting from the balcony at the 
 Royal Hotel. The looks of those who had paid doubly for their tickets 
 were amusing subjects for a painter's study. A distinguished autho- 
 rity says — 
 
 " Doubtless the pleasure is as great, 
 Of being cheated as to cheat;" 
 
 but our friends of the rueful countenances thought very differently. 
 They applied for theii* money to him who " had the bag" — but there 
 was no money to be returned. They demanded their tickets — but these 
 could not be had ; and an angry tempest was on the point of bursting 
 forth, when one of the " leaders" volunteered to procure for the disap- 
 pointed parties places at the Hotel, equivalent to those of which they 
 had been deprived by the adjournment. They confidingly followed 
 him ; but he dexterously effected his own entree into the privileged 
 quarter, leaving his dupes outside to enjoy the luxury of the streets, 
 and the pleasant companionship of the " greasy nations" of Hercules- 
 street and Smithfield. 
 
 *' There's nought hero but Repealer's filth, 
 Repealer's scab and hunger ; 
 If Providence has sent us here, 
 'Tvvas surely in an anger," 
 
 was the exclamation of one of the disappointed. 
 
 The crowd having now collected around the balcony of the Hotel, 
 fronting the Linen-hall, Mr. O'Connell soon made his appearance out- 
 side, surrounded, as Wolfe Tone would say, by the " old set ;" viz Dr. 
 
 Denvir, Dr. M'Laughlin, the Messrs. M'Mullan, from Castlewellan, 
 John O'Dougherty, Esq., Killygordon, (County Donegall,) Robert 
 M'Dowell, Esq., John Sinclaire, Esq. (formerly of Belfast, now of Ballin- 
 trae, in Ayrshire), John M'Kittrick, Esq., Woollendraper, (Newtown- 
 ards), Charles M'Alister, Esq, (Belfast), Surgeon Lynch, Tom Steele, 
 
38 
 
 Dillon Browne, and Priests innumerable. The day, though frostv, 
 was clear, and, upon the whole, extremely fine for the season. John 
 Sinclaire- Esq., was called to the chair, which he occupied with be- 
 coming dignity, and did not swear half-a-dozen oaths during the whole 
 proceedings. This fact we are prepared to certify, should any doubt 
 be expressed on the subject. 
 
 The appearance of the principal personages upon the platform was 
 the signal for uproarious applause on the part of the Repealers, and 
 for corresponding disapprobation fion: the rest of the assemblage. 
 Yells, hisses, groans, cheers, and exclamations of all descriptions were 
 blended together in the most strange confusion imaginable ; so that 
 the building of Babel, or the unearthly noises which " vexed the ear of 
 chaos and old night," could scarcely have been worse. To think of 
 hearing a single word that Mr. O'Connell, or any one else actually said, 
 was a physical impossibility, except, perhaps, to some of the newspaper 
 reporters, who placed their note-books upon Mr. O'Connell's back, 
 amidst entreaties that they would not press too hard, lest they should 
 throw him over amongst the crowd, while they were occasionally 
 obliged to ask, over his shoulder — " what's that ?" — when they had 
 lost, amidst the confusion, the purport of his oration. At one period 
 there might have been, in front of the platform and around the Linen- 
 hall, about 8,000 or 9,000 persons, but, upon an average, there were 
 not more than five thousand in attendance during the day, and of these 
 about one-third Avere Repealers, the remainder being partly composed 
 of persons whose curiosity had prompted them to hear the speeches, and 
 the rest of sturdy Anti-Repealers, Avho spared not their voices on the 
 occasion. On one of the trees inside the Linen-hall, and directly 
 fronting Mr. O'Connell, was placed a large placard, bearing, in con- 
 spicuous characters, the title — " Dr. Cooke's Challenge ;" while 
 many of the exclamations uttered by the mob were ludicrously charac- 
 teristic — " Ha, Dan, there's Dr. Cooke coming" — " No Pope" — " No 
 Surrender" — "Come down out of that, ye big begg'arman, till we 
 shake hands with ye" — " Three cheers for Ellen Courtenay" — responded 
 to by — " Put out the Ballymacarret weavers ; go home to your sowens, 
 ye scareci'ows" — " Dan O'Connell for ever" — " Hurrah for Repeal," 
 &c. In regard to the numbers present Ave may mention, that the space 
 occupied by the crowd has since been carefully measured, and it has 
 been ascertained, mathematically^ that it could not possibly have con- 
 tained more than the extreme calculation already assigned, and we 
 have been liberal in our estimate rather than otherwise. 
 
 In the way above stated, newspaper reports of Mr. O'Connell's 
 speech were obtained, but, in reference to the bulk of the meeting, the 
 whole affair was absolutely dumb show, as not a syllable could be heard 
 at the distance of a yard from the spot on which Mr. O'Connell stood. 
 The following is taken from the Northern Whig : — 
 
 Mr. O'Connell rose, and, throwing off his green cloak, displayed a surtout of 
 Repeal frieze, witli a white velvet collar, and Repeal buttons. He was received witli 
 deafening shouts of applause, mingled with those discordant yells, from the rere of 
 the crowd, wliich had prevailed incessantly from the speakers mounting the platform. 
 When a degree of silence liad been obtained, the hon. gentleman addressed the as- 
 semblage, as follows: — Gentlemen, I came here to-day, prejjarcd to address you in 
 a much narrower compass than that in which you are now met. (Chetrs. ) 1 feel 
 tluit some apology is due to those who assembled in the Pavilion where the enter- 
 
39 
 
 taiiiment took place, last night, for the delay wliich lias been Occasioned to tliem, by 
 tlie change in the place of meeting to-day. The reason why the meeting of to-day 
 is held in a different place from that originally intended is, that it was considered, 
 that the multitude who would congregate would be far too large to allow us to show 
 the triumph of Repeal, in Belfast, by confining them in so limited a compass as the 
 walls of the Pavilion. (Loud cheers.) 1 have here, in my hand, a memorandum 
 taken from the ancient history of the North of Ireland. (Hear, hear.) I have a 
 series of resolutions, passed at a time when Irish liberty was in a flourisihng state — 
 (Hear, hear.) The first were agreed to on the 15th of February, 1782, at the con- 
 vention held in Dunganuon — Colonel W. Irvine in the chair — a meeting at which 
 the principal part of the nobility, gentry, landed proprietors, and respectable mer- 
 chants of the Province, were present. The resolutions are as follow : — 
 
 " Resolved, — That we hold the right of private judgment, in matters of religion, to be 
 equally sacred in others as in ourselves. 
 
 " Resolved, therefore, — That, as men and as Irishmen, as Christians, and as Protestants, 
 we rejoice in the relaxation of the Penal Laws against our Roman Catholic fellow-subjects; 
 and that we conceive the measure to be fraught with the happiest consequences to the union 
 and prosperity of the people of Ireland. 
 
 Tliese resolutions, gentlemen, were passed at a meeting-such as I have described, with 
 but two dissenting voices. (Cheering,) I shall read for you one resolution more, 
 —a resolution passed in the town of Belfast, on the 7th of March, 1782, at a meeting 
 held in the Town-house, — Thomas Sinclaire, Esq. in the chair. [The hon. gentle- 
 man here pointed to the venerable Chairman, seated on his left; and gave occasion 
 to a renewed burst of cheering ] The resolution is to this effect : — 
 
 " Resolved unanimously, — That if any Irishman has been, or shall be, hardy enough to 
 assert, directly or indirectly, that any body of men, other than the King, Lords, and Com- 
 mons of Ireland, had, have, or ought to have, a right to make laws to bind this realm, in any 
 case whatsoever, every such man insults the majesty of the King of Ireland, the dignity of 
 its Parliament, and the whole body of its people; is an enemy to this kingdom, and ought 
 to be reprobated as such, by every friend of Ireland. 
 
 " Resolved unaniomusly, — That it be, and it is hereby, most earnestly recommended to 
 all the inhabitants of this Province, to assemble in their several towns and parishes, to de- 
 liberate on those matters, and, in case they shall approve thereof, to enter into similar reso- 
 lutions ; as we are fully convinced, that nothing is now wanting to establish and secure the 
 £reedom and prosperity of Ireland, but the avowed union of its people. 
 
 Yes, gentlemen, these were the resolutions passed in your town, and by your ances- 
 tors, before the passing of the Union. (Cheers and hooting.) The first resolution 
 I read to you was adopted at one of the greatest meetings of Reformers ever held in 
 this Province. ([lear.) And the crowds whom I behold assembled before me, this 
 day, prove, that the old spirit is yet alive in Ulster, and show the countless multitudes 
 that belong to the Repeal here. Even the clamour which is raised, to prevent those who 
 speak from being heard distinctly, proves the strength of the Repealers here assembled, 
 (Cheering.) That interested clamour, which you find it necessary to shout down, 
 while you add to the difficulty of hearing my words — that clamour is a species of in- 
 terruption which only proves the weakness of your opponents, and the vast number 
 of the Repealers of Belfast. (Cheering and groaning.) I defy any man to call that 
 Union a contract — I defy any one to call it any thirg else than an imposition prac- 
 tised upon the brave people of Ireland, by force and fraud — an imposition practised 
 on them at a time when they were weakened by broils and political dissensions — - 
 (hear, hear) — which had been fomented by the English themselves. (Hear, hear,) 
 It would have delighted me to show you Sheriffs of counties calling meetings, in 
 the absence of the people, those meetings being afterwards dispersed, at the point of 
 the bayonet — to have shown you martial law in force — Habeas Corpus suspended, 
 and the Jury-box empty — the prisons full — the scaffolds crowded — public opinion 
 stifled — and the Union carried, in the presence of an overwhelming military force — 
 (Cheers.) I would have shewn you, that there were employed, in addition, for the 
 purpose of effecting the Union, bribery and corruption, the most unpaialleled. I 
 would have shown you, that no less a sum than £1,275,000 was paid as the actual 
 price of the Union, while £3,000,000 was distributed, in sums cf various amounts, 
 as pecuniary bribes, (Cries of " Hear, hear,'' and groaning.) That noise which is 
 created, in order to prevent the utterance of those sentiments which I came here to 
 deliver to you — to stifle the advocacy of Repeal— will cause the cry of Repeal to ring- 
 through Bdfast. (Cheering.) Ail I wish now to intimate to the sober, thinking 
 
40 
 
 people of Belfast is, the simple fact of the fiscal rohbery which has been perpetrated 
 upon us, by the Union. (Cheers and hooting.) [Here a person behind the line of 
 police, on the opposite side of the street, displayed a large coloured placard, with the 
 words, " Dr. Cooke's Challenge," printed in very conspicuous characters. A Con- 
 stable tore it to pieces, on which, Mr. O'Connell smiled, and called out — " Never 
 mind the bill — leave it with him.''] There is not a man, who is at all conversant 
 •with the history of the Union, who does not know, that it was based upon the gros- 
 sest injustice. (Hear.) At tlie time it was carried, the national debt of England was 
 .£416,000,000— that of Ireland did not amount to £20,000,000 ; (Hear and cheers.) 
 The Irish Parliament, while we were permitted to retain it, kept the debt within 
 j£20,000,000 ; while the English Parliament, in its profligacy, had allowed the na- 
 tion to be involved in the amount of £4.46,009,000. This was the extent of the 
 national debt of England, at the time of the Union — it was now upwards of 
 £800,000,000; and, of this, Ireland was liable to one-half. (Hear, hear.) The 
 bargain, in fact, was the same as if one merchant were to meet another on 'Change, 
 and say to him, " I owe £446,000, — you, £20,000 ; let us enter into partnership, 
 and share the profits equally." What would the latter think of the former's propo- 
 sition ? (A laugh.) That was the substance of the financial agreement brought 
 about by the Union, though it has ever been most cunningly and carefully disguised. 
 XiOrd Castlereagh promised, at the time of the Union, that Ireland should only be 
 subjected to her own share in the debt. England pays but five millions of taxation, 
 when, by right, she should pay seventeen millions. If the bargain had been carried 
 out to the letter of the agreement, England should be now paying, at the very least, 
 ten or twelve millions more than she does at present. (Hear, hear.) This surplus, 
 for the past forty years, has amounted to, at least, four thousand millions. (Hear.) 
 Never was there such wholesale plunder, never was there corruption and injustice so 
 palpable, never was there such gigantic robbery, as was heartlessly perpetrated at the 
 miscalled Union. (Great cheers.) The next giant grievance consequent on the 
 Union is absenteeism. The drain of money out of the country, immediUely subse- 
 quent to the Union, amounted to one million per annum ; and, according to the late 
 calculation of the Railroad Commissioners, the drain of the country's wealth 
 amounted to four millions annually. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) Four millions, for, 
 forty years, amount to one hundred and sixty millions, which, added to the previous 
 four hundred millions of debt, to which the country has been so unjustly subjected, 
 will amount to five hundred and sixty millions. (Cheers.) This was monstrous.— 
 (Hear.) Here is robbery unheard of. The next injustice inflicted on our country 
 is that which regards the revenue. A surplus of two millions has annually found its 
 way, inUhis department, from Ireland to the sister country. Thecoflfers of England 
 are enriched by our wealth, in this respect, as well as the otheis I have mentioned. 
 Sum up all these different amounts, and then reflect on the extent of the annual 
 exhaustion from our country, and the consequences of it. ( Hear, and cheers. ) How 
 can the people expect to receive adequate wages for their labour under such 
 a system? I promised last night to speak to you for two hours, to-day, on Repeal. 
 I could easily keep that promise, if you would only have patience with me. But 
 you are not unlike the Irish bagpipes. (Laughter.) There is a grunt and a groan; 
 with you ; and it generally happens that these grunts and groans drown the musical 
 part of the entertainment. (Loud cheering and great laughter.) We have the 
 music here near us, and the groaning and grunting is at a distance. In ail my life- 
 time I have been playing second part to the drones, which is, of course, the musical 
 part. (Laughter and cheers, mingled with great shouting.) There is a class of 
 Reformers who must soon be with me. They cannot become stationary. They must 
 either advance or recede. They must become either Conservatives or Repealers. 
 The diflferent sects of Reformers*in Belfast must /jo onward in the movement. I 
 came hither to help them on. Those who are here the advocates of household suf- 
 frage and vote by ballot, must soon become Repealers; and we will receive tliem 
 with a. cead mille failte. (Cheers.) The Imperial Parliament will never attend to 
 the interests of this country. The House of Lords is inimical to us, and in the 
 House of Commons we have had fow majorities in favour of Stanley's Bill. The 
 Bill will come on again. " On, Stanley, on.'' (Hear, hear, and cheering.) This 
 will be the watchword at the opening of Parliament. It is argued against Repeal 
 that we are anxious for Catholic ascendancy. I deny it. Ther-j is not a Protestant 
 mere opposed to Calkolic ascendancy than I am. Three times the Catholic party 
 have been in power since the Reformation. Three times it was the principles of the 
 Government, Mary's persecutions contaminated religion, and injured the country. 
 
41 
 
 But I will read to you the following passage from a Protestant historian—" Taylof 
 on the Civil Wars of Ireland" : — 
 
 " The restoration of the old religion was eflfected without violence; no persecution of the 
 Protestants was attempted ; and several of the English who fled from the furious zeal of 
 Mary's Inquiiitors, found a safe retreat among the Catholics of Ireland. It is but justice 
 to this maligned body to add, tint, on three occasions of their obtaining the upper hand, 
 thev never injured a single person in life or hmb, for professing a religion different from 
 their own." 
 
 The Learned Gentleman then proceeded to read, also, the following extracts from 
 the Work of Mr. Wm. Parnell, a Protestant gentleman, in his Heretical Apology 
 for the Catholics of Ireland : — 
 
 " A «tlU more strikinT proof, that the Irish Roman Catholics in Queen Mary's reign 
 were very little infected with religious bieotry, may be drawn from their conduct towards 
 the Protestants when the Protestants were at their mercy. "V^ere we to argue from the 
 representations of the indelible character of the Catholic religion, as pourtrayed by its 
 adversaries we should have expected, that the Irish Catholics would have exercised every 
 kind of per'secution, which the double motives of zeal and retaliation could suggest. The 
 Catholic laity, in all the impunity of triumphant bigotry, hunting the wratched heretics 
 from their hiding places— the Catholic Clergy pouring out the libation of human blood at 
 the shrine of the God of mercy, and acting before high heavtn those scenes which make 
 
 ^' But on" the' contrary, though the religious feelings of the Irish Catholics, and their 
 feelin"'^ as men, had been treated with very little ceremony during the two preceding reigns, 
 thev made a wise and moderate use of their ascendancy. They entertained no resentment 
 for the past- they laid no plans for future dominion. Even Leland allows, that the only 
 instance of Popish zeal was annulling grants which Archbishop Browne had made, to the 
 iniury of the See of Dublin, and certainly this step was fully as agreeable to the rules of 
 law and equity as to Popish zeal. Such was the general spirit ot toleration that many 
 English families, friends to the Reformation, took refuge in Ireland, and there enjoyed 
 their opinions and worship without molestation. The Irish Roman Cathohcs bigots ! The 
 Irish Roman Catholics are the only sect that ever resumed power, without exercising 
 vengeance." 
 
 The learned gentleman then referred to the kind offices performed by the Catholic 
 Corporation of Dublin to the men of Bristol at a former period. He proceeded to 
 say that as the Irish House of Lords in a domestic legislature would be Conservative 
 it would be absurd to apprehend religious ascendancy. The House of Commons 
 ■would be popularly formed, and would pass popular measures, and there wonld be 
 sufficient check on the possibility of a religious ascendancy. It was no sectarian 
 conflict they were now engaged in. It was a struggle for all creeds, and all Ireland 
 in fact (Cheers.) He repeated that the Repeal question ought to draw to Us sup- 
 port every denomination of Christians, as it sought to reflect equal advantages and 
 equal ri^^hts on all and every sect and party, both political and religious. Insult na 
 man—le't no ille"-al oath be taken— let no secret Society be formed amongst you— 
 fhear hear)— for no man will be considered a Repealer who violates the law in any 
 respect (Great shouting.) Remember that the motto of Repealers is, "That 
 whoever violates the law strengthens the enemies ef Ireland." Don't you think that 
 some of the boys who are hooting here to-day would be very glad you broke the 
 law?— (great shouting)— instead of hooting they would be laughing at you, if you 
 were violating the law, but don't interfere with them— don't insult them, but laugh 
 heartily at them. (Laughter, and rounds of Kentish fire.) Yes, my friends, I did 
 assist m achievin-T the great measure of political amelioration. (Hear, hear.) I 
 as<=isted in obtaining Catholic Emancipation— (cheering)— and mark me, my friends, 
 before we achieved that boon for our country, we obtained the emancipation of the 
 Protestant Dissenters in England. ( Great cheering, and hisses. ) Our struggle for 
 them had nothing sectarian in it— it was on the principle of freedom of conscience— 
 and the feeling- we were guided by was, that the man that interferes between his 
 fellow-ereature^and his God, you may call him Protestant, Presbyterian, or Dissen- 
 ter, or Catholic, as you please, but, believe me, he is not a Christian at all. Join 
 with me, then, in this peaceful agitation for the Repeal. (Great cheering and hiss, 
 ing.) Hurrah, then, for Repeal. (Loud cheering and hissing.) My duty, my 
 friends, has been performed. I am amongst you, and when this demonstration has 
 concluded, separate in peace and good order— go to your homes in the innocence as 
 well as the merriment of children. Nothing can be more satisfactory than the man- 
 ner in which the authorities have and continue to conduct themselves ; and, in your 
 names, my friends, I thank the IMag!strates_(loud cheering)— peace and order bav« 
 
 F 
 
42 
 
 been preserved — the rights of freemen have not been infringed upon. 'Tfs pieasKsJ 
 10 see justice administered in that wa}-. (Hear, hear.) I congratulate you on it, 
 and it cheers me onward on my route. (Cheers.) Now take my advice — the mo- 
 ment the chair is vacated, let every body go directly to his own home. (Hear, liear. ) 
 If any body tells you that he has hooted us to-day, take off your hat to him and bow. 
 (Laughter and cheers.) Oh, yes, I do triumph in this spirit — I exult in the cer- 
 tainty of having so many peaceful and orderly Repealers, ready to assist their country 
 in her need, by the performance of their duty to that country, and without the viola- 
 tion of any law whatsoever. (Cheering.) We will rally for old Ireland — the vvise 
 and the good of all sects and persuasions will struggle with us — and you will yet have 
 your election here for Members for the Irish parliament. (Cheering and Kentish 
 fire.) College Green will re-echo with the shout of emancipated millions. The fra- 
 ternal force of liberty, presaging prosperity, will rise from Connemara to the Hilt of 
 Howth — will pass from Cape Clear to the Giant's Causeway ; and the men of Belfast 
 will gladden, in pleasing gratitude, as the joyous sound passes them ; and there will 
 not be a voice in Ireland more true to the country than that which shall proceed 
 from the emancipated Irishmen of Belfast. (The Hon. and Learned Gentleman 
 then retired, amidst cheering, hissing, and Kentish fire.) 
 
 Several Repeal resolutions were proposed and Mr. Steele attempted 
 a speech, bvit not one word of it reached the groundlings, amongst 
 whom an incessant uproar prevailed, and the orator was at length 
 compelled to sit down. Robert M'Dowell, Esq. was then called to 
 the chair, and the usual formality of thanks to his predecessor having 
 been gone through, the parties withdrew. During the meeting the 
 Military and Police were so admirably placed as to keep the hostile 
 mobs from coming into collision, while the vigilance and activity of 
 the Magistracy were in every quarter unremitting. Popular excite- 
 ment had now reached its height, and indications of mischief were on 
 all sides observable. 
 
 PART IV THE SOIREE. 
 
 " After this day's success at the ' Royalj' 
 
 "With Sinclane, IM'Dowell, & Co., 
 
 We'll end in the utmost of splendourj, 
 
 And down to the Music-hall go ; 
 When, in gallons of Bohea and Congou, 
 
 We'll drink all our sorrows away. 
 
 And the ' twinkling feet' of the ladies 
 
 WiU welcome the break of the day 
 
 Whack fal de ral, kc."— Repeal Rhymes. 
 
 It had been announced beforehand, that, on the evening of Tuesday 
 a Soiree, for the benefit of the St. Patrick's Orphan Charity, would 
 take place in the New Music Hall, May-street, under the superinten- 
 dence of a Committee of Ladies, at which Mr. O'Connell would take 
 the cVaiy. Accordingly, at a quarter before 7 o'clock, Mr. O'Connell, 
 accotapaiiled by his friends Messrs. Steele, Browne, Drs. Denvir and 
 M'Laughlin, 8jc. entered the Hall by the private door, and took their 
 respective places on the platform. The house was filled in every 
 direction, and presented a striking and animated appearance, which 
 contrasted strongly with the greasy mob amongst whom Mr. O'Con- 
 nell had spent the previous part of the day. The Hall was brilliantly 
 lighted, and large numbers of well dressed ladies were in attendance, 
 while a small, but efficient Band, which had been placed in the gal- 
 lery, tended in no slight degree to diversify and enliven the enjoy- 
 ments of the evening. This was, in reality, the only popular exhibitioo 
 
43 
 
 On wliicli Mr. O'Couiiell could look with any feeling appi'oachiag to 
 satisfaction since his arrival in the North, and we will do the parties 
 the justice to add that it had been tastefully got up, and was most 
 respectably conducted. Between 300 and 400 individuals were pre- 
 sent, of whom more than one half were Ladies ; but it were obviously 
 a mistake to set down the fair ones as Repealers ; for, during the 
 evening when an incidental allusion chanced to be made which drew 
 forth the pocket-handkerchiefs of the political "angels," it was very 
 observable that the latter constituted not more than one -sixth of the 
 entire " galaxy of beauty" — the rest preserving a respectful silence. 
 Tea and Coffee were served up in elegant style, after which Mr. 
 O'Connell, in accordance with a previous arrangement, proceeded to 
 introduce to the meeting a series of sentiments prepared for the occa- 
 sion. In his introductory remarks he was frequently very happy, 
 though his style of oratory was of a rather subdued cast, and he seve- 
 ral times contrived to bring in, without any seemingly studied effort, a 
 variety of well applied compliments to the fair sex. His correction of 
 the lines — 
 
 '' Oil woman, in your hours of ease, 
 Unceitain, coy, and hard to please," 
 
 by another couplet from the same author — -^ 
 
 " Wh-en pain and sorrow wring the brow 
 A ministering angel thou." 
 
 produced a simultaneous burst of applause. Again when inoidentallj 
 alluding to the loss of his wife, he became so affected that he was 
 compelled abruptly to sit down. 
 
 The following are some of the sentiments given on this occasion — 
 " The Queen," " The Princess Royal," " The Duchess of Kent," 
 *' The Ladies of the £t. Patrick's Orphan Charity," &c. Towards the 
 conclusion M. O'Connell proposed the health of the friends who had 
 accompanied him on his way to Belfast, viz. Messrs. Steele, Brown, 
 and Nicholas Markey. Mr. Brown returned thanks in appropriate 
 terms acknowledging in the words of the Poet — 
 
 *' if hearts that feel and eyes that smile 
 
 Be the dearest gifts that heaven supplies. 
 We never need leave our own green isle. 
 
 For sensitive hearts and for sun-bright eyes." 
 
 The only other speakers of the evening were Dr. Denvir, and the Rev. 
 G. Crolly, the former when proposing Mr. O'Connell's own health, and- 
 the latter in acknowledgment of that of the " Ladies of the St. Pat- 
 rick's Orphan Charity." 
 
 Shortly after Nine o'clock, Mr. O'Connell, in company with his 
 friends, retired through the private door already alluded to, and re- 
 turned to his rooms in the Royal Hotel. The majority of the Com- 
 pany then withdrew to the lower room of the Music Hall, where 
 dancing parties were immediately formed, and " many twinkling feet" 
 kept up the hilarity of the occasion with no lack of spirit till a late 
 or rather an early hour — 
 
 •' Qualis in Eurotse ripis aut per juga Cynthi, 
 Exertec Diana Choros" 
 
 From the spirit of excitement which the Repeal meeting had created 
 amongst the populace in the early part of the day, it became evident 
 that the utmost vigilance of the authorities would be required, to avert 
 the mischief which might be reasonably apprehended ; and though no 
 
44 
 
 precautions were omitted, yet, towards dusk, immense multitudes of 
 persons began to perambulate the streets, to break windows and com- 
 mit other acts of violence. A dense mass of individuals congregated 
 about the Music-hall, at an early period of the Soiree, smashed with 
 stones several panes of glass, and one stone was thrown with such force 
 as to cut right through the blind inside, dash to pieces several lamps 
 of the splendid chandelier suspended from the centre of the ceiling, 
 and falling upon a young lady slightly to injure her face. Other mis- 
 chievous acts were also done, which every respectable member of 
 society will reprobate, whatever may be the party from which they 
 proceeded- A good deal of alarm existed for a short time, especially 
 amongst the ladies ; but the Police drew up in force about the Hall, 
 and, in this quarter, no farther annoyance was experienced. We now 
 approach 
 
 PART v.— THE RETREAT. 
 
 " DuifCAN he cam' gallopia', gallopin'. 
 Arms an' legs a wallopin', wallopin,' 
 Deil tak' the last, quo' Duncan M'Calapin, 
 Laird o' Tullyben, jo." 
 
 Scotch Song. 
 Now, Johnnie Gope, be as good's your word. 
 An' try our fate wi' fire an' sword, 
 An' dinna tak' wing, like a frighten'd bird 
 
 That' chas'd frae its nest i' the morning. 
 
 ******* 
 
 When Johnnie Cope to Dunbar came, 
 They spier'd at him — ' whar's a your men ?' 
 * The de'il confound me gin I ken, 
 
 For 1 left them a' i' the morning.' " 
 
 Jacobite Relics. 
 
 During the greater part of Tuesday night, the mob exercised their 
 faculties with unwearied activity in the breaking of windows; and when, 
 through the intervention of the authorities, aided by the Police, the 
 work of destruction was suppressed in one quarter, it was almost in- 
 stantaneously b«gun in another. The windows of several of the leading 
 Repealers were smashed, and considerable damage was done ; but the 
 Repealers themselves had their mob, who attacked the houses of their 
 opponents, and, in one instance, the life of a respectable lady, a member 
 of Dr. Cooke's congregation, was seriously endangered, in consequence 
 of a brick bat, which weighed lib. 14oz., having been thrown into 
 her room. After Mr. O'Connell's retirement from the Soiree, the 
 Royal Hotel was assailed, and, we regret to add, several vollies of 
 stones were thrown into the room in which Mr. O'Connell was sitting 
 amongst his friends. This occurrence, taken in connexion with the 
 disturbed and highly dangerous state of the town generally, induced 
 Mr. Kerns, the proprietor of the Hotel, and " honest Tom Steele," to 
 swear the following affidavits before the magistrates : — 
 
 CocNTV OP Antrim, "J The information of Thomas Steele, Esq., of the County 
 To wit. Vof Clare, who, being duly sworn, states, that he was, this 
 
 — J evening, sitting in the room in which Daniel O'Connell, 
 
 Esq., and his friends, have dined, for the last two days, when both windows were 
 broken by stones, thrown from the streets ; and many other windows of the hotel were 
 broken, as informant heard and believes. Infoimant being under a decisive imprcs 
 sion, that said stones were thrown by an Orange mob, with intent to murder said 
 Daniel O'Conael), or to do him some bodily harm, claims, from the Magistrates o-f 
 
zi ■* 
 
45 
 
 Belfast, the protection wliich ought to be afforded to the said Daniel O'Connell, 
 under such circumstances, by granting a sufficient guard, for this night, and pro- 
 tection to the place of his einbarkation. Signed, 
 
 " Thomas Steele. 
 " Sworn before ue, at Belfast, this 19th day of January, 1811. 
 
 Signed, 
 
 " Robert J. Tennent. 
 R. Grimsbaw. 
 James Blacnamara. 
 R. Coulson. 
 
 A. Chichester. 
 Thomas Verner, Sovereign. 
 Walter Molony, Resident Magistrate. 
 H. Brownrigg." 
 The information of Charles Kerns, hotel-keeper of the town of Belfast, who, 
 beinf dulv sworn, states, that Daniel O'Connell, Esq,, and his friends, have resided 
 in his hotel, since their arrival, on the 16th January; that, on this evening., a rio- 
 tous mob broke several windows in said hotel, and, particularly those of the room in 
 which the said Daniel O'Connell usually dined, £:igned, 
 
 " Charles Kerms. 
 " Sworn before us, at Belfast, this 19th day of January, 1811. Signod, 
 
 " A. Chichester. 1 Robert J. Tennent. 
 
 Thomas Verner, Sovereign. I James IVIacnamara. 
 
 Walter Molony, Resident Magistrate. I R. Grimshaw. 
 
 H. Brownrigg. | R. Coulson." 
 
 In consequence of these applications, a guard was placed upon the 
 Hotel during the remainder of the night, and a strong Police foree, 
 under Mr. Giveen, was ordered to escort Mr. O'Connell in the morn- 
 ing as far as Donaghadee. 
 
 A celebi-ated author has recorded his opinion, that, 
 
 " In all the art of war no feat 
 Is nobler than a brave retreat ; 
 For those that run away and fly 
 Take place, at least, of the enemy." 
 
 In confirmation of this exalted sentiment, we need not fatigue the 
 patience of our readers with hacknied classical recollections about 
 Xenophon and the " Ten Thousand," as we have at hand a modern 
 instance, and one still more significantly appropriate. At the Pavilion 
 dinner one of the decorations was a bust of Napoleon placed in a niche 
 adjoining that occupied by a similar bust of Mr. O'Connell, and one 
 of the orators on that occasion instituted a flattering comparison be- 
 tween the originality of genius belonging to these two great characters, 
 the one in the science of war, and the other in that of politics . Each 
 in his own department discovered and applied, with tremendous effect, 
 new powers whose existence had been scarcely suspected, until made 
 patent through the medium of their gigantic atchievements respec- 
 tively. We accept this pai'allel, at the same time reminding its inge- 
 nious author, that Napoleon once, in the pride of imaginary conquest, 
 went " too Jar North," and that the " retkeat" from Moscow Avas 
 the forerunner of his dowcjal. Again, he went " too far North" — a 
 piece of daring generalship in which his " parallel" is not likely to 
 imitate his rashness — and the barren rock of St. Helena, became in 
 the end his palace and his grave. 
 
 On Wednesday morning Mr, O'Connell and his escort started from 
 Belfast, and proceeded towards Donaghadee by Newtownards. When 
 within a short distance of the last mentioned town, the funeral of the 
 late Peter Johnston, Esq. was seen approaching in a long and solemn 
 procession attended by a vast concourse of people. Our travellers 
 were sadly frightened, as they mistook it for an insurgent band of 
 Anti-Repealers, who probably intended to do bodily mischief to the 
 '• Liberator," and the uneasiness of the parties was manifested in no 
 
46 
 
 ,<&quiyocal manner. At length the reality was discorered, and, the 
 courage of the gallant band became reassured. No time, however, was 
 lost in reaching Donaghadee with the least possible delay. 
 
 At Donaghadee itself a number of persons collected to view the stran- 
 gers as articles of curiosity, and though a cry for repeal was attempted 
 by one or two individuals, it signally failed. It is said that the friends of 
 Mr. O'Connell, on entering the town, took care to exhibit their loaded 
 pistols which were conspicuously stuck in their belts. They had no 
 need of any such ostentatious precaution, as there are no Rockites in 
 the North, and here at least no sun shines on " showers of gore from 
 the upflashing steel of safe assassination." After breakfast Mr. 
 O^Connell and his suite proceeded towards the Quay while a Highland 
 piper, whether from accident or design we know not, actually struck 
 up the well known lilt of " We II gang nae mair to yon toun.' From 
 the deck of the steamer Mr. O'Connell briefly addressed the crowd, 
 which lined the Quay, on the necessity and advantages of Tee-totalism. 
 This politic manoeuvre brought him a number of parting cheers — then 
 waving his cap, he bowed to his audience, bade farewell to the inhos- 
 pitable regions of the North, and, aided by her Majesty's steam packet, 
 continued his retreat until he had reached in safety the rock-bound 
 shores of Portpatrick. We now conclude this eventful history in terms 
 of Lord Byron's characteristic farewell to Malta, which certainly em- 
 bodies some of the reflections that must have arisen in the mind of our 
 iliero on getting clear of the North — . 
 
 " Adieu, thou palace rarely entered, 
 
 Adieu, ye mansions — where I've ventoredj 
 
 Adieu, ye cursed streets of stairs, 
 
 (How surely he who mounts you swears !) 
 
 Adieu, ye merchants ever failing, 
 
 Adieu, thou mob for ever railing ! 
 * * « * * « 
 
 Adieu, ye females fraught with graces. 
 
 Adieu, red coats, and redder faces ! 
 
 ****** 
 
 I go, but God knows when or why, 
 To smoky towns and cloudy sky. 
 To things (the honest truth to say) 
 As bad — but in a different wav." 
 
 ADDENDUM. 
 
 The following resolutions which were unanimously agreed to at a 
 meeting of Students belonging to the Presbyterian Church in Ireland, 
 deserve a place in these pages, in connexion with O'Connell's agita- 
 tion visit to Ulster. 
 
 " 1st, Resolved — " That, understa ruling a declaration was made, some time ago, 
 by Mr. O'Connell, to the effect, that the Presbyterian youth of Ulster would coin- 
 cide with him on the question of Repeal, but for the undue influence of Dr. Cooke, 
 we, the Students of Belfast Royal College, feel ourselves called upon, at the present 
 time, so far as we are concerned, publicly to repudiate the groundless assertion of 
 Mr. O'Connell ; and, also, to profess our decided and conscientious opposition to the 
 political creed of this gentleman, believing tliat it is inimical to Protestantism, and 
 subversive of the best interests of our country. 
 
 2d, Resolved — " That, in common with the Protestants of Ulster, we do express 
 our admiration of the manner in which Doctor Cooke has challenged and confounded 
 Mr. O'Connell, and has thus demonstrated, that, however the question of Repeal 
 may serve in Iiis hand?, to excite an ignorant mob, it cannot stand the test of search- 
 jng argument," 
 
47 
 
 A FULL AND AUTHENTIC REPORT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 TWO GRAND CONSERVATIVE DEMONSTRATIONS, 
 
 Which took place in Belfast on the 21 st and 22d January, 184.1. 
 
 In consequence of the systematic and persevering attempts of O'Con- 
 nell and his partlzans to introduce the Repeal agitation Into the North, 
 as detailed in the preceding pages, a counter-demonstration was I'e- 
 solved upon on the part of the Conservatives, and the following Re- 
 quisition was accordingly published in the Newspapers : — 
 
 " The undersigned request a IMeeting of the Nobility, Clergj', Gentrj', and other 
 friends of the British Constitution and Connexion, in Antrim, Down, and the con- 
 tiguous Northern Counties, to be held in Belfast, upon Thursday, the 21st January, 
 1811, at Eleven o'clock, a.m., for the purpose af expressing their opinion in favour 
 of the principles of Lord Stanley's Registration Bill, and also in opposition to the 
 attempt, now for the first time undisguisedly made in Ulster, to effect the Repeal of 
 the Union.'' 
 
 This requisition was signed by Lords Downshire, Abercorn, Done- 
 gall, Hertford, Waterford, Ely, Londonderry, Lothian, Mandeville, 
 Roden, Clanwilliam, Mountcashel, Ennisklllen, Belmore, O'Neill, 
 Castlestewart, Caledon, Clancarty, Ranfurley, Hillsborough, Loftus, 
 Castlereagh, Corry, Dungannon, Fenard, Newiy and Mourne, North- 
 land, J. Beresford, Claude Hamilton, S. Algernon Chichester, Adam 
 Loftus ; James, Dromore ; De Ros, Blayney, Farnham, Duffeiln and 
 Claneboy, Sandys, Powcrscourt, &c. &c. And, in fact, by the prin- 
 cipal Nobility, Gentry, and Clergy of the Province of Ulster, while 
 the meeting which ensued formed a striking contrast, both in numbers 
 and respectability, to the ragged pauperism which two days before had 
 been gathered at the Royal Hotel. The dinner given on the following 
 evening to J. Emerson Tennent, and G. O. Dunbar, Esqrs. Members 
 of Parliament for the borough of Belfast, was proportlonably brilliant. 
 We subjoin ample reports of both demonstrations. 
 
 THE MEETING. 
 
 This meeting was held on Thursday, 21st January, agreeably to the 
 requisition which appeared in the papers, and which was so numerously 
 and respectably signed, by 1605 of the Nobility, Clergy, and Gentry 
 of the Northern counties In Ireland, consisting of 41 Peers and No- 
 blemen, 14 Right Honourable and Honourables, 18 Baronets, 32 Mem- 
 bers of Parliament, 11 High Sheriffs, 6 Lord Lieutenants of counties, 
 98 Deputy Lieutenants, 335 Magistrates, 257 Clergymen of the Estab- 
 
48 
 
 Hailed Church, 45 Presbyterian Ministers, 28 Methodist Ministers, and 
 28 Barristers. Such an array of the rank, wealth, talent, and respecta- 
 bility of the country, never before met in Belfast, to give expression to 
 their sentiments, on any public measure. At the hour appointed for 
 the meeting, the Circus was most densely crowded in every part. The 
 front and side boxes presented a very imposing and splendid appear- 
 ance, being principally occupied by ladies. In the front of the gallery, 
 a platform was erected for the speaiiers, and, even on this, a great 
 many gentlemen were obliged to stand. Previous to the opening of 
 the business, the assembled multitude gave demonstration of their feel- 
 ings, by loud cries of " No Repeal," cheering, and the Kentish fire. — 
 The following are as many of the names of the principal Noblemen, 
 Clergy, and Gentry, who were present, as we could collect — the list 
 will speak for itself : — 
 
 The Marquis of Downsliire; Earl of Hillsborough, M.P. ; Lord Loftus, Ely Lodge, 
 Enniskillen ; Lord iS'ewry and Mourne ; Lord Northland, M.P. D.L. J. P.; Lord Algernon 
 Chichester ; Lord Adam Loftus; the Hon. S. Hewitt, J. P. ; the Right Hon. George R. 
 Dawson ; Hon. and Rev. S. Blackwood ; the Hon. George Handcock ; Sir George Hill , 
 Bart. D.L. J.P. ; Sir Robert Bateson, Bart. J. P. Castrue; Sir Hugh Stewart, Bart. Bal- 
 Ivgawley House county Tyrone ; Sir H. Harvev Bruce, Bart. ; Sir Robert Bateson, Bart. 
 M.P. D.L. J.P. ; Sir Arthur Brooke, Bart. M.P. J.P. ; Theobald Jones, M.P. ; William 
 Verner, M.P. ; James Emerson Tennent, M.P. D.L. J.P. ; George Dunbar, M.P. D.L. 
 J.P. ; Thomas Greg, Ballymenoch, Holy wood. High Sheriff of Antrim; Matthew Fords, 
 Seaford, Clough, High Sheriff of Down ; Simon Armstrong, HoUymount, Manorhamilton, 
 High Sheriff of Fermanagh ; John Lindsay, Loughry, Dungannon, High Sheriff of Tyrone : 
 Lieut.-Col. M. Close, Drumbanagher, Newrj, D.L. J.P. ; Edmund M'Donneli, D.L. J.P. 
 Glenarm Castle ; Rev. Walter B. Mant, Archdeacon of Down ; Nathaniel Alexander, 
 Portglenone House, D.L. J.P. ; Rev. H. Cooke, D.D LL.D. ; Rev. James Saurin, Arch- 
 deacon of Dromore ; Rev. Robert Stewart, D. D. Broughshane ; Con. R. Dobbs, Castle 
 Dobbs, Carrickfergus, J.P. High Sheriff Elect for Antrim; Rev. John Chaine, Dean of 
 Connor; John C. Moutray, Favor Royal, Aughnacloy, D.L. J.P. ; John Rowan, Merville, 
 Belfast, J.P. ; Rev. James Stannus, Lisburn, Dean of Ross ; Henry Richardson, Somerset, 
 Coleraine, D.L. J.P. ; Wm. Wilson, Esq. Belfast; R. B. Blakiston. Orangefield, J.P ; 
 Jas. Courtenay, J.P. Glenburne, Portglenone; Marcus M'Causland, Fruit-bill, Newtown- 
 limavady, D. L. J.P. ; Rev. Daniel M'Affee, Belfast, Wesleyan Minister : John Harrison, 
 Esq. Belfast; Alatthew Anketell, Anketell Grove, county Monaghan, D.L. J.P. ; Lieut.- 
 Colonel Cairnes, K.H. J.P. Portstewart ; Colonel Tisdall, Church-hill, Louth, J.P. ; Wm. 
 Cairns, Cultra, J.P. ; Lieut. -Colonel Hawkshaw, Blaris Lodge, Lisburn, J.P. ; George 
 Joy, Galgorm Castle, J.P. ; Rev. Diwson Dean Heather, Belfast ; Major-General Coulson, 
 Holywood ; Charles Douglass, Grace-hall, D.L. J.P. ; William B. Forde, Esq. Seaford; 
 James Blackwood, D.L. J.P. Strangford ; Sir George Hill, St. Columbs, Dorry ; John 
 INIitchell, Esq. Monaghan; Rev. B. W. Forde, Seaforde ; John Lindsay, Esq. Belfast; 
 Lieutenant Wm. Hall, R.N.; Wm. Herbert Hall, Esq. Belfast; Lieut.-Colonel Robert 
 Lowry Dickson, J.P. Holybrook, county Fermanagh,; Wm. Delacherois Crommelin, Esq. 
 Carrowdore Castle ; Rev. John R. Young, Rector of Tydonet ; Rev. Charles Wood, Inch, 
 
 Downpatrick ; Cross, Dartou, county Armagh, J.P. John Henrv Loftie, DrumargalU 
 
 house, county Armagh; J. Waring Maxwell, Fmnebroguo, D.L. J.P. ; Rev. R. A. Agar, 
 Rathfriland; Rev. James O'Hara, Saintfield; Rev. Robert Hill, Aughalee Glebe ; Rev. 
 John Leech, Chaplain of St. Patrick's, Newry ; Rev. Henry Martin, Larne ; Rev. Charles 
 Falloon, Shankhill Glebe ; Rev. Robert Harvey, Belfast; Rev. Colin levers, Batlinderry ; 
 Rev. George M. Black, Strandmillis ; J. Maxwell, M.D. Pointzpass ; Henry Leslie, Esi]. 
 Leslie-hill; William Gamble, Esq. Magheraf^lt ; Rev. J. Townley Macan, Greenraount ; 
 Rev. John Davis, Warrenpoint; David M'Connell, Esq. Belfast; Thomas Gather Ma- 
 guire. Assistant Methodist Missionary ; Richard Davison, Esq. Belfast ; Rev. H. G. 
 Johnson, Bangor; Doctor Stewart, Lisburn; Major William Stewart, Lisburn; S. 
 S. Bateson, Esq., BelvoirPark; J. Waring, Esq, Newry. J.P. ; Rev. William Batt, 
 Belfast; Thomas Stannus, Esq., Lisburn; Rev. James Shields, Presbyterian Minister, 
 Newry; Thomas Crawford, D.L.,J.P., Fortsingleton ; S. Corry, Esq., J.P., Old Hall, 
 Rosstrevor; James Robinson, J. P., Warrenpoint; Major Houghton, Springfield; Capt. 
 Crawford, Lisseu, Lisburn; A. Anuesley, Esq., Ardilea, Clough; James J. Clarke, J.P., 
 Maghera; A. Spottiswood, Millbrook, Magherafelt ; Robert Thomson, J.P., Jennymount ; 
 Wm. D'Arcy, Necaira Castle, Countv Fermanagh; J. B. Beresford. Esq., Learmount; 
 William E. Reilly, Esq., D.L.J.P., Hillsborough; George Callwell, Esq., Lismoyne ; 
 Captain Graves, J.P,, Castledawson ; William Caldbeck, Esq., Hon. George Handcock. 
 J.P., Randalstown; D, S. Kerr, Esq , Porta vo ; R. Kerv.Esq. Portavo ; G. Macartney, 
 
49 
 
 D.L. J.P., Lissanoure Castle ; J. M'Neile, Esq., D.L.J.P.. Paikmount ; B. C. Adair, 
 Esq., Louglianmore ; Lewis Reford, Esq., Beechpark ; Captain Garner, Garnerville ; Cha?, 
 O'Hara, Esq., J. P., O'Hara-brook ; Lieut. J. G. Lapenotiere, Castledawson ; William 
 Irwin, Esq., J. P., INIountirwin; James Watson, Esq., D.J.JP , Brookhill ; Col. Tisilall, 
 J. P., Charleville, County Louth; John Robert Lwin, Esq , Cavnagh House, Arm.agh ; 
 Hamilton Frail Johnston, J. P., Hollypark, Kiliinchy ; A'tliur Hill Reid, J.P., Goshen 
 Lodge, County Down; James D. Rose Cleland, D.L.J.P., Ralhgale House, Bangor; 
 Bartholomew M'Naghten, J, P., Ballybogey ; Richard Blackiston, Esq., J.P. ; G. F. 
 Coolderry, D.L.J. P., Rlonaghan ; Arthur Hill IVIontgomery, D.L. J. P., Tyrella; Jan-es 
 Goddard, Esq , Euston Lodge; Henry Rowley, D.L, LoUgli M'Rory Lodge, Tyrone; 
 Major Richardson, D.L.J. P., Poplar Vale, IMonaghan ; William Archdall, J.P,, Rivers- 
 dale, Enniskillen; T. R. B. Evatt, A.M.T.C,D., J P., JMountlouis, Monaghan ; John 
 Montgomery, D.L. J. P., Benvarden ; R. J. Smyth, J. P., Lisburn ; John Owens, Bally- 
 voy, Ballyclare, J.P. ; John Lindsay, D.L., High Sheriff, Tyrone ; James Owens, D.L. 
 J. P., Holestone ; the Dean of Tuam; Thomas Lucas, J. P., Ballybay , Rev. A. Hender- 
 son, Lisburn; Wm. G. Johnson, Esq , J.P., Forttield ; James Henry, Esq., Fairview, 
 Castledawson; John Thomson, Esq., Lowwood ; Rev. Wm. Annesley, J. P., Ardilea, 
 Clough; Hugh Leckey, Esq., J P., Bushmills; Charles W. Armstrong, J. P., Cherry- 
 valley; Roger Hall, Narrow-water Castle; H. liichardson, D.L. J. P., Somerset; Wm. 
 Keown, J. P., Ardglass Castle, Down ; A. Miller, Ballycastle, Treasurer, County Anliim ; 
 Robert Potter, Esq.. J. P., Ardview ; Arthur Forbes, J. P.. Craigavad ; John Russell, 
 Esq., Newforge ; S. Cleland, Esq., Stormont ; Thomas G. Bktt, Esq , Purdysburn ; An- 
 thony Lefroy, D.L., Longford; Richard F. Anderson, J. P., Welshtown ; Charles Fox, 
 D.L.J.Ps, Ready; John Corry, D L. J. P., Moutray, Favour-Royal, Auchnacloy ; Edw. 
 /irchdall, D.L. J. P., Rivcrsdale, Enniskillen; Duncan C. Getty, J. P., Solicitor, Moira ; 
 Samuel Davidson, J. P. ; William Verner, Esq., M.P., Verner's-bridge ; Francis Crossley, 
 
 Esq., Glenburne; J. Stewart Moore, D.L. J. P., Ballydivity ; Badie, Esq., D L.J.P., 
 
 Ringdufforin ; Peter Quinn, J.P , Acton House ; W. Burleigh, Esq. , J.P,, Carricklergus; 
 Robert Lindsay, J. P., Mauleverer, Maghera; W. S. B ackwood, Esq , J. P., Saint- 
 field ; Sir Arthur Chichestei", D L.J. P., &c., &c., &c. 
 
 On the motion of T. Greg, Esq., High Sheriff of the County of 
 Antrim, seco-ndid by M. Forde, Esq., High Sheriff of the County of 
 Down, 
 
 The Marquis of Downshire was called to the chair, amid loud 
 cheers, and several rounds of the Kentish fire. When the applause had 
 subsided — 
 
 His Lordship said, that, upon so great, so important an occasion, 
 he felt confident there was not an individual in that numerous and re- 
 spectable assembly, who would not join with him a-nd the Committee 
 in feeling that it would be most proper and becoming, on the part of 
 the meeting, to commence, ,by unanimously adopting an address of con- 
 gratulation to her Majesty and his Royal Highness Prince Albert, on 
 the birth of the Princess Royal ; a resolution, and an address founded 
 thereon, would be therefore submitted to their notice. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 It was then moved by J. S. Watsox, Esq., of Brookhill ; and se- 
 conded by Nathl. Alexander, Esq., of Portglenone. 
 
 " That John Bates, Esq act as Secretary to this meeting." 
 
 The Right Hon. Geo. Robt. Daavsox then came forward, to move 
 the adoption of the address, am^id loud and long-continued cheers — a 
 duty which he said he undertook with great pleasure. He did so not 
 only for the purpose of proving his own loyalty upon this occasion — 
 although he believed it was not doubted — (cheers) — but for the pur- 
 pose of re-echoing in voices, which he hoped would be appreciated aud 
 heard from one end of the empire to another, the sentiments of the 
 loyal Conservatives of the North of Ireland — sentiments which he be- 
 lieved to be not only those of the North, but of every other part of 
 the empire, where Conservatism existed. (Hear and cheers.) Under 
 ordinary circumstances, there might not have been any occasion foi' 
 
 G 
 
50 
 
 this address to lier Majesty and her royal husband, congratulating- them 
 upon the recent auspicious event ; but they (the Conservatives) having^ 
 been taunted with disloyalty to their Sovereign, should seize the first 
 opportunity of proving the conti'ary. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) 
 Traitors to the country had dared to taunt the Conservatives of Ire- 
 land with want of attachment to the Queen. How dare they do so ? — 
 (Hear and cheers.) He was, therefore, proud of having been selected 
 as the organ of contradiction to so urfoui.'ded a calumny. (Cheering.) 
 There was not one bosom, from the noble leader's of the House of 
 Lords, and the eminent leaders of the House of Commons, down to 
 that of the humble individual who then addressed them, that did not 
 beat with loyalty to the Queen. (Cheers.) Heconeeived that loyalty 
 and Conservatism were convertible terms, and that no Conservative 
 could be any thing but loyal. (Treme-ndous cheering.) Loyalty to 
 the Queen and Constitution of the country were the very essence of 
 Conservatism — (cheering) — and the very essence of sovei'elgnty was 
 loyalty to the nation, and conservation of the institutions of the coun- 
 try. He could, therefore, understand no Conservatism that was not 
 loyal, and no Sovereign that was not a Conservative. (Cheers.) At 
 present, her Majesty was surrounded by persons who did not profess 
 those principles, but he^ Majesty, like a true and loyal Sovereign to 
 the nation, bowed to th^ will of her Parliament, and suffered herself 
 to be surrounded by those who were enemies to the country. (Cheers.) 
 But it was the constant drop that wore the stone, not the foaming tor- 
 rent that made the cavity ; and it would be the Canterburys and the 
 Walsalls that would wear down the majority In the House of Commons. 
 (Hear, and great cheering.) The day was coming, and the elections 
 which had recently taken place, proved that it was not very far distant 
 — (hear and cheers) — when every difficulty which now presented itself, 
 will have entirely vanished, and, when the Queen of this empire will 
 occupy the proud position, which, as a member of the house of Bruns- 
 Avick, there was no doubt she wished to occupy — namely, that of being 
 surrounded by those who sought for power, not for the purpose of 
 merely basking in the sunshine of royal favour, but for protecting the 
 institutions of the country — of being surrounded by those whose loyalty 
 was the same, imder all circumstances. They could say, in the words 
 of the poet — 
 
 " Our loyalty is still the same, 
 
 Whether vie lose or win the game j 
 
 True as the dial to the sun, 
 
 Although it be not shone upon." — (Cheers,) 
 
 Far different was the loyalty of those who professed different principles. 
 (Hear.) Theirs was a loyalty which merely sought the enjoyment 
 of patronage, and which had dared to call George the Third " a blood- 
 thirsty tyrant." Theirs was a loyalty by which many persons were 
 now pensioners upon the country ; and who, while they lived upon the 
 public money, ventured to call George the Fourth " a sensual and sense- 
 less voluptuary ;" and who, when one of the noblest and bravest of 
 British princes that ever adorned the annals of their country, was lying 
 on his death-bed, ventured to propose, in reference to that illustrious 
 person, " success to hemlock." The loyalty of Conservatives was not 
 of that description. (Hear, hear.) It was not a loyalty which would 
 
51 
 
 <Iegrade ©r calumniate tlie royal character, when the partj was out 
 of power, but a loyalty which would at all times, and under all cir- 
 cumstances, be prepared to ofier hand and heart to the Queen of Great 
 Britain, and with both to support and defend the crown, the church, 
 and every thing else noble or valuable in the land. (Loud cheers ) lu 
 saying this much, he felt convinced that he was but echoing' the sen- 
 timents of every lady and gentleman in that building, which he was 
 happy to gee crowded by so brilliant an assemblage. (Cheers.) Hg 
 hoped he would now be excused for offering a very few observations in 
 reference to the events which had occurred witliin the last few days in 
 Belfast. He could not express one-twentieth part of the indignation 
 he had felt when he found that ruffian, O'Conuell — (enthusiastic 
 cheers) — when he found that political impostor daring to come down 
 Xo disturb the peace of their homes, and to drag the country gentle- 
 men of Ulster from their quiet firesides and from the bosom of their 
 tenantry, for the purpose of meeting as they had that day met, to tell 
 him (O'Conuell) in the face of the world, that he had belied the North 
 of Ireland — (tremeijdous cheering) — and that he had uo claim what- 
 ever either wpoji their syn: pathy or regard. He had come down to 
 Belfast upon a bucaniering crusade, accompanied by some of his 
 satellites or tail, or whatever he called it — (laughter) — and for what .'' 
 • — to increase his beggarly funds, by denouncing the Union that had 
 existed for forty years between the two countries. (Cheers.) Such 
 w&s hU professed object. But, surely, he might have known that his 
 expidition must have failed as signally as it had done ; when, if he had 
 only referred to the fact, as recorded upon the books of his own Repeal 
 Association, he would see that the contributions of the Province of 
 Ulster, in favour of his revolutionary project, had amounted to just 
 £.2 2s. sterling. (Laughter.) Surely that might have been sufficient to 
 prove to him, that he would not have found either sympathy or money 
 for his rebellious purposes, in the northern provinces of Ireland. — 
 (Cheers?) He had said, indeed, that in coming down here, he had 
 been actuated by a national spirit. But what was the fact ? Why, 
 that he had been led to do so, by his personal hatred of Lord Stanley, 
 against whom he vainly and foolishly hoped to raise the cry of con- 
 demnation. It was, therefore, no desire for the public, no public spirit 
 that had induced hira to come among them ; it was the spirit, the per- 
 vading spirit of selfishness, — or in a word, money, which had led him 
 to the North. (Loud cheers.) He was sure, that the love of money 
 must have been early instilled into his mind by some of his relatives, 
 who, as he often said himself in reference to others, must have obser- 
 ved to him, "get money Dan, honestly if you can, but at all events, 
 get money." But how had he succeeded. (Hear, hear, hear, and 
 cheers.) He stole into town, and he left it under an escort of 
 police, leaving it difficult to determine whether his entree or retreat 
 was the more glorious. (Laughter and cheers.) Although there was 
 no doubt that O'Conuell, at the next public meeting he attended, 
 would tell them that the enthusiasm with which he had been received 
 in Belfast could scarcely have been repressed, he would continue to call 
 it the " Black North," and say, after a little while it was blacker than 
 ever. (Cries of " he would.") But they had treated him properly.- — 
 He hacl come into the town like a thief, and he had gone out of it lik^ 
 
52 
 
 a convict, botli pi-oceded and folloAved by a body of police, which he 
 had obtained from the magistrates of the town, upon the affidavit of 
 Tom Steele, one ef his satellites, wKom he had put forward on every 
 occasion during his visit, as the representative of his own person, so 
 shat had a blow been given it would have fallen on the pate of poor 
 Tom Steele, instead of the rebellious agitator himself. (Laughter and 
 cheers.) Tom Steele had made an affidavit that O'Connell was in 
 danger from an infuriated Orange mob ; and he therefore prayed for 
 the support of the militax'y and police to protect him from violence. 
 Now, if the people of Belfast had any spirit, they would resent such 
 an unfounded charge. (Cheers.) The man who had not the courage 
 during the time he was in the town, to shew himself in the streets ; but 
 had he done so, he would not have been molested. (Hear, hear.) He 
 would, doubtless, have been hooted, hissed, and cheered, and he (Mr. 
 Dawson) would readily have made one of the Orange mob, as they 
 were called, who would have done so, — but his person would have 
 been safe. Ireland would have praised the loyal men whom O'Connell 
 slanderously called an Orange mob, that had hissed Mr. O'Connell 
 out of the country. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) The speaker 
 then alluded to the challenge of Dr. Cooke, to whom he said, he be- 
 lieved they were indebted for the present splendid manifestation of 
 public feeling. He rejoiced in this opportunity of paying his humble 
 tribute of respect, to one who had been denominated a ferocious divine, 
 but whom he would call a distinguished and high-minded gentleman. 
 He therefore called on the meeting, for one unanimous cheer of appro- 
 bation for his character and conduct. (Loud and long continued cheers 
 for Doctor Cooke, followed by several rounds of the Kentish fire.) — 
 O'Connell had shrunk from meeting Dr. Cooke, as he had failed to 
 meet every antagonist who had had the courage to challenge him.- — 
 (Hear, and loud cheers.) His visit to Belfast, however, would not 
 be without its useful effects. (Cries of hear, hear.) The reception 
 he had met with, while it would give encouragement to the Protes- 
 tants of Ireland, would teach the demagogues of the country, with 
 O'Connell at their head, that they could not tiifle with the feelings 
 or principles of Protestantism. (Loud cheers.) The Protestants of 
 Ireland might be in a minority in point of numbers, but if forced to 
 take their position, it would be found that they constituted by far 
 the greater portion of the property, the intelligence, and the nerve of 
 the country. (Loud cheers.) Let O'Connell and his tail continue 
 if they pleased to draw a contrast between Roman Catholics and 
 Protestants — the Protestants did not seek it ; let their enemies if they 
 pleased, continue to draw that contrast — but, in doing so, let them 
 recollect the events that had taken place at Aughrim, at the Boyne, 
 and at Enniskillen. Let them recollect those events, for he could 
 tell them, if ever they sought for their repetition in the North, they 
 would find that every river in it would become a Boyne, and every vil- 
 lage an Aughrim. (Loud and long protracted cheering, with the 
 Kentish fire.) The Protestants of Ulster would have what has long 
 been the watchword of Derry — " No Surrender." (Cheers.) They 
 would maintain their position. When the struggle came, be it sooner 
 or litter, they would have no fear whatever of their ability, by being 
 finited, as they had always been, to maintain the Crown, the Church, 
 
53 
 
 and the State. (Loud cheers.) The right honourable gentleman con- 
 cluded by moving 
 
 " That addresses of congiadilation be presented to Her Majesty and His Royal 
 JHigliness Prince Albert, on the birth oftlK' Princess Royal." 
 
 [At this period of the proceediugs, the doors were ordered to bo 
 closed, in consequence of the great pressure.] 
 
 Lord Algernon Chichestek seconded the motion, which passed 
 unanimously, amidst loud cheers. 
 
 Colonel Vernee then came forward, amidst enthusiastic cheering, 
 and one cheer more for the Deputy Grand Master, to move the adop- 
 tion of the address. The applause having subsided, the gallant colonel 
 proceeded to express his approval of the objects of the meeting, and 
 observed that there never was an occasion Avhen the province of Ulster 
 was more peremptorily called upon to express its opinion than the pre- 
 sent, two meetings having recently been held by a body professing to 
 represent the province, and calling itself the Ulster Association ; which 
 he must say he regarded as a great piece of presumption, as that associa- 
 tion did not speak the sentiments of the people of Ulster. If any body 
 of men were entitled to assume that name, it was those he saw around 
 him, for they represented the rank, wealth, and respectability of every 
 county in the province. (Hear, hear.) The gallant colonel, referring 
 to Lord Stanley's bill, said, that in expressing their approbation of the 
 measure they should not forget their admiration of the man. (Hear, 
 hear.) Yes, they were deeply indebted to Lord Stanley for having 
 brought forward that measure, and for having the courage to proceed 
 with it, amidst insults the grossest, and language the most disgraceful, 
 language Avhich he believed no man would have dared to utter outside 
 the doors of the House of Commons. As for a Repeal of the Union, 
 the specimen they had had within the last few days, of opposition to 
 such a measure, said more against it than he possibly could. (Loud 
 groans for the Repeal of the Union.) It was, however, a measure for 
 serious consideration, when they reflected from Avhom it was that Mr. 
 O'Connell received sanction, if not support, in his turbulent agitation 
 of it. (Cries of hear, hear, and cheers) If the Government of the 
 country were sincere in their determination to su2:)press that agitation, 
 nothing could be more easily done. The Repeal of the Union was a 
 measure which had been proved by ^Ir. Spring Rice, in a speech of 
 six hours' lei^gth — a speech which he believed had taken half as many 
 years to prepare — (loud laughter) — would work injuriously for Ireland; 
 it was a measure to which a noble lord had declared in parliament, he 
 would prefer civil war ; it was a measure which had been denounced 
 by the present Lord Lieutenant, and yet the military and police forces 
 of the State were allowed to accompany that mountebank through the 
 country, who was alone the cause of the agitation. ( Loud cheers.) He 
 (Colonel Verner) recollected when it was deemed advisable to put 
 down a society very diflerent in its nature from the Repeal Associa- 
 tion — a society whose objects were perfectly legal, which had existed 
 for upwards of forty-one years, which had received the thanks of the 
 Government and of both Houses of Parliament, and the admiration 
 and approbation of every loyal subject. It was deemed advisable that 
 it should be put down, and in obe-dieuce to that opinion the societv of 
 
54 
 
 itself oeased to exist. (Hear.) The person whose presence had latelj 
 disgraced the town of Belfast, said, upon that occasion, that the 
 Government had gone the right way of putting down the party, for it 
 had taken the bull by the horns in removing the society. Now, the 
 bull, he (Colonel Verner) thought, meant himself. (Laughter.) Well, 
 if the Government were really determined to put down the Repeal 
 agitation, he would say to them, take the bull by the horns, and whether 
 it was the bull of Rome or the Irish bull, he ventured to say, they 
 would meet with success. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The High Sheriff of Fermanagh seconded the motion. He began 
 by alluding to the Belfast meeting which had been held for Repeal in 
 this town ; and called upon them to look upon that picture and upon 
 this. (Loud cheers.) He referred to the prosperity and orderly state 
 of one part of Ireland, as compared with the rest ; and said, that Go- 
 vernment ought to be sensible of the important advantages of Conser- 
 vatism. Protestants claimed the right of reading their Bible, and no 
 one could do that, and not be a Conservative and a loyal man. He 
 assured the meeting, that the gentry and yeomanry of the county which 
 he had the honour to represent, sympathized as fully as he did, with 
 the objects of that meeting. He had sincere pleasure in seconding the 
 resolution. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The resolution was then put and agreed to unanimously ; and the 
 following addresses were read and adopted : — 
 
 " TO THE QUEEN'S MOST EXCELLENT MAJESTY. 
 " Mat it please your Majesty, — We, your Majesty's most dutiful and loya! 
 subjects, the Noblemen, Clergy, and Gentry, of Antrim, Down, and the contiguous 
 Northern counties, assembled by public requisition, beg leave to approach your Ma- 
 jesty, with our heartfelt congratulations, on the birth of the Princess Royal. Whilst 
 we tender our humble thanks to Almighty God, whose Providence watched over 
 your Majesty's precious life, and has returned you to perfect health, to the joy of all 
 your loyal and devoted subjects; and to God, by whom Kings reign, and Princes 
 decree justice, it shall ever be our earnest prayer, that your Majesty may long be pro- 
 served, to reign over these inseparably united kingdoms, and that your illustrious 
 line may be perpetuated, — the defenders under God, of our faith and our freedom, 
 to all generations.'' 
 
 "TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE ALBERT OF SAXE 
 GOTHA AND COBURG. 
 " We, the Noblemen, and Clergy, and Gentry, of Antrim, Down, and contiguous 
 Northern counties of Ireland, by public requisition assembled, beg leave to congratu- 
 late your Royal Highness on the birth, and continued health of the Princess Royal, 
 and the happy recovery of her Majesty ; and we pray to Almighty God that her 
 Majesty's union with your Royal Highness may be long and blessed ; and that your 
 posterity may be perpetuated to rule over a united, prosperous, loyal, and happy 
 nation." 
 
 John Bates, Esq., then read the requisition, calling the meeting, 
 and stated, that it had been signed by 1,605 noblemen and gentlemen. 
 
 The Marquis of Downshire then came forward, and was received 
 with unbounded demonstrations of applause. He said, that he had 
 already used the phrase, " constitutional," and he now repeated it, as 
 that best calculated fully to indicate the feelings by which this great 
 meeting he saw before him were actuated. (Cheers.) He thanked 
 them lor tl»e proud station in which he was then placed, and he should 
 always endeavour so to direct his conduct, as to continue to meet widi 
 
55 
 
 similar testimonies of regard from his fellow- countryuiea. (Clieers.) 
 He had always felt, that the cheerful support cf the laws was the duty 
 of every loyal subject, aud that consideration brought him to the first 
 
 object of the meeting, namely, the Repeal of the Act of the Union. . 
 
 It appeared to him, that so destructive a measure could not be pro- 
 posed by any of her Majesty's subjects, with a view to the interest of 
 the throne, or the people of this realm, and he therefore joined in the 
 proceedings of that day, to implore that the union of the three king- 
 doms might be permanently established. (Loud cheers.) Tlie power- 
 ful endeavours made by Lord Stanley, during the last Session in the 
 House of Commons, ought to inspire every loyal subject with the ut- 
 most confidence, that the future exertions which he proposes to make 
 would be ultimately crowned with success. He was firmly of opinion, 
 that, if any meeting of the public, or expression of opinion, could have 
 weight with the Legislature, the assemblage which he saw before him 
 would be attended with the most important results ; and he, therefore, 
 for one, came forward cheerfully in support of the Act of Union, and 
 for the purpose of returning thanks to Lord Stanley, for the judgment 
 and perseverance which he had displayed in proposing and supporting, 
 
 with extraordinary ability and judgment, his new Registration Bill. 
 
 (Loud cheers.) Too much praise could not be given to that nobleman, 
 who held so distinguished a station in the public mind already, that they 
 could do but little to exalt him more. He trusted, however, that the 
 proceedings of that day would tend powerfully to support those exer- 
 tions for which they were so grateful. (Loud cheers.) The other 
 point to which the attention of the meeting would be especially directed, 
 was the necessity for advocating and adopting every course of conduct 
 and action, which tended to the support of her Majesty's crown and 
 dignity ; and it gladdened him inexpressibly, to perceive that the Pro- 
 testants of the kingdom required no urging on that point, but recog- 
 nizing the necessity which had arisen for their interference, had come 
 forward with unanimity to sustain the laws of the realm. (Loud 
 cheers.) He was sure the proceedings of that day would be distin- 
 guished by that calmness and devotedness of conduct, which would 
 best advance the cause they had at heart in both countries ; for ho 
 could assure them, that the eyes of the empire at large were then di- 
 rected to the events which were taking place in the north of Ireland, 
 and he felt a strong hope that the conduct adopted by them would prove 
 creditable to the high-minded and intelligent population, for which that 
 part of the kingdom had ever been distinguished. (Cheers.) Of the 
 Magistrates, Gentry, and resident nobility, he could not speak too 
 highly, and the greatest honour which could be conferred on him, was 
 to be considered one of that distinguished body. (Cheers.) It had 
 been said by a noble friend of his, that Lord Stanley's Bill should be 
 thrown out, because it was a restrictive measure on the rights of the 
 people, but he would tell that noble lord, that such could never be the 
 ease in that part of Ireland ; for those who were there permitted with- 
 out interference to exercise their just rights, had never been disgraced 
 by those acts of perjury, which had called forth so much just animadver- 
 sion in other parts of the country. (Hear, and cheers.) The object 
 of Lord Stanley Bill was to put an end, for ever, to those enormities, 
 aud he trusted that it would not be long delayed. In the mean time, 
 
56 
 
 the would throw out a sug-gestion to his Roman Catholic fellow-suhjects, 
 that they would not permit any body of men, whatever their spiritual 
 influence might be, to interfere with the duties which they had to dis- 
 charge to themselves, their landlords, their country, and their families. 
 (Cheers.) He had mentioned their landlords, as persons to whom they 
 owed something, because, if he knew any thing of the character of 
 Irish gentlemen, he would assert, that it was distinguished above all 
 other characteristics, for an anxious wish to improve their tenantry and 
 dependants. (Loud cheers.) He would, moreover, say to the Roman 
 Catholic clergymen themselves, that it was their duty to exclude from 
 the house of God all political feelings — (hear, hear, hear) — and that 
 whoever the individual might be, who commanded or desired it, they 
 should not suffer individuals to be denounced from their altars, nor ob- 
 jects unconnected with the worship of the Most High, to be canvassed 
 and insisted on within the walls devoted to His services. (Hear, hear.) 
 If this advice were acted on throughout the kingdom, more especially 
 in the South of Ireland, it wovild soon present an appearance exactly 
 the reverse of what they were so often called on to deplore, in every 
 portion of the country except in the Province of Ulster. (Cheers.— 
 lie said this from an anxious desire to benefit the whole of the country 
 and thus serve that portion of it to which he was, from position and 
 feeling, most attached himself; for he was firmly convinced, that, while 
 a lino of demarcation existed between the North and South, neither the 
 one nor the other could thrive to the full extent of their capabilities. — 
 (Cheers.) The most noble Marquis concluded, by thanking the meet- 
 ing for the honour conferred upon him, and expressed his readiness, 
 upon every occasion, to join in any undertaking which might be adopted 
 for the benefit of his country. [He resumed the chair amid loud cheers, 
 and several rounds of the Kentish fire.] 
 
 Mr. Bates proceeded to read the letters of apology which had been 
 received from the noblemen and gentlemen who were unable to attend 
 the meeting. I^e said the correspondence was very voluminous ; and, 
 if time permitted, every letter which had been received by him would 
 be read to the meeting. A hurried selection had, however, been neces- 
 sarily made. Mr. Bates then read letters from 
 
 Lords Donegal!, O'Neill, "Waterford, E\y, Mountcashell, Enniskillen, Belmore. Castle- 
 Stuart, Clancarty, Castlereagh, Dungannon, Ferrard, Corry, Claude Hamilton, Blayney, 
 Farnbam, Lord JBishop of Clogher, General Meade, Counsellor Napier, E M. Connolly, 
 M.P. ; Hon. A. H. Cole, M.P. ; Hon. H. Corry, M.P ; Hon. S. Hewitt, J. P. ; E. S. 
 Hayes, M.P. ; Sir James R. Bunberry, J.P. ; Sir Thos. Forster, Bart., J.P. ; Sir E. 
 Bellingbam, Bart., J.P. ; Sir J. M. Strnnge, Bart., J P. ; P. Kiri<, M.P. ; E. Lucas, 
 M.P. ; E. J. Shirley, M.P. ; W. J. Armstrong, High Sheriff, County Armagh; R. G. 
 Montgomery, High Sheriff, Connty Donegal); J. M'Clintock, jun., High Sheriff, County 
 Louth ; H. L. Montgomery, High Sheriff, County Leitrim ; Colonel Ward, J.P. ; Lieut. 
 General Cuppage ; Rev. Alexander Ross, Rector of Banagher ; W. Humphreys, J.P. 
 
 The Secretary also announced having received letters from Lord Powerscourt, M.P.; Lorn 
 John Beresford ; Lord D. Ros ; Lord Sandys ; the Hon. and Rev. Charles Douglass ; the 
 Hon. John L. Cole; the Hon Edward Wingfield ; the Hon. General O'Neill, M.P. ; ths 
 Hon. John C. Maude; the Hon. Somerset l{. Maxwell ; the Hon. R. T. Maxwell; «it 
 J. A. Stewart, Bart. ; Lieut. General Sir T. Molyneaux, Bart. ; Sir R. Gore Boo^S, 
 Bart,; Sir John Lighton, Bart.; Sir W. Macartney, Bart.; Sir Hugh Stewart, Bart, 
 the Marquis of Abercorn; the Marquis of Hertford; the Marquis of Londonderry; th' 
 Earl of Roden; the Earl of Clanwiiliam ; the Earl of Wicklow; the Earl of Ranfurlv 
 &c., &c., &c. 
 
 The Chairman then rose and said that he had recelveJ, that morn 
 ing, a letter from Lord Chai'leville, in which that noble lord expresse' 
 
57 
 
 * hope, that the present meeting would be productive of all the good 
 to the prosperity and liberty of the country, which it was so well cal- 
 culated to effect. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The Earl of Hillsborough came forward to propose the next reso- 
 lution, and was received with cheering and the Kentish fire. He pro-, 
 ceeded to observe, — My Lord, Gentlemen, and brother Protestants, I 
 feel myself highly honoured in being called on to propose the resolution 
 which has been put into my hand, and on which, after the able and 
 eloquent speeches which you have just now heard, I will only trouble 
 you with one or two remarks. (Hear, hear.) In the first place, then, 
 allow me to condole with you on the failure — the utter failure — of the 
 Repeal meeting which was held, or to be held, I do not know which ; 
 for I assure you, that I could not hear one word of the addresses said 
 to be delivered, and I believe no one else was more fortunate. (Hear, 
 hear, and loud cheers.) I have, it is true, seen a report of speeches 
 alleged to have been spoken ; but I suppose they were all sent ready 
 prepared to the press. I condole with you, gentlemen, on the failure 
 of the political charlatanism which was attempted to be practised 
 among you. I condole with you in that way in which you would ex- 
 pect to find me condoling — and that is, not at all. (Laughter ) I 
 now turn from this farce to a subject of a more pleasing nature — that 
 referred to in the resolution I am about to submit to you. 1 thank 
 you, gentlemen, for this meeting — I thank you that you have enabled 
 our enemies to say, that Ulster has been roused at last. (Loud cheers ) 
 I thank you as a Protestant, like yourselves, for the determination you 
 have evinced, to stand up for your rights, and in support of the Con- 
 stitution. I thank you, finally, for this manifestation of your approba- 
 tion of Lord Stanley's bill. (Hear, hear.) I am happy to see that so 
 many gentlemen have come here, from great distances, at this inclement 
 season of the year, to express their concurrence in the objects of this 
 great meeting. (Cheers.) Let us hope that the assembly will be as 
 useful in its proceedings, and as successful in its results, as that over 
 which I had the honour to preside in 1834. (Loud and trem.endous 
 cheers.) That meeting was called together by me in virtue of the 
 high station I then occupied, as High Sheriff of the County Down, and 
 not as a certain Radical has falsely stated, at the bidding of my father- 
 1 wish the present meeting may turn out as well as that did ; for it not 
 only turned the Whigs out of office, but proved, to the despairing 
 Protestants, that their dejection was not without remedy. (Hear.) — 
 I hope it will show the Sovereign the strength and the loyalty of the 
 Protestants of Ulster — that it will prove to her how unworthily she is 
 advised by her present Ministers. (Hear, hear.) If the truth, the 
 whole truth, and nothing but the truth, were told to her Majesty, it 
 would not be necessary for us to hold such a meeting, merely to pro- 
 tect ourselves. (Cheers.) His lordship then read the resolution. — 
 This resolution pledges us to the support of Lord Stanley's bill — (hear, 
 hear, and cheers) — and, I think, that, when it is considered that that 
 bill has already been agreed to by majorities in Parliament, composed 
 of all shades of opinion — Whigs, Radicals, and Tories — (hear, hear) — 
 you will excuse me for not going into details at this time ; to do which, 
 indeed, in a satisfactory manner, would require the perspicuity and 
 acumen of a lawyer. I will say this much for myself, that I will, this 
 
 H 
 
5S 
 
 jear, act in the same way, with regard to that bill, as I did last year. 
 I then attended every night in the House of Commons, and voted in 
 every division, and 1 will be as punctual in the ensuing session ; and I 
 am as convinced of the honesty of Lord Stanley as I am of the necessity 
 and success of the measure. Allow me to conclude, gentlemen, by ex- 
 pressing concurrence with the spirit of the resolution I have just read 
 to you. (Loud cheering and the Kentish fire.) The following is the 
 resolution referred to : — - 
 
 " That the present state of the law for the Registration of Electors in Ireland is 
 confessedly ineffectual for the discrimination and enrolment of a duly qualified consti- 
 tuency, as defined by the Reform Act of 1832, and holds cut most dangerous temp- 
 tations to the advancement and support of factitious claims to the franchise, by means 
 of perjury and fraud.'' 
 
 George Macaktney, Esq., Lissanore, then came forward, and 
 was received with several bursts of applause. He said, in responding 
 to their call, to second the resolution which his noble friend had just 
 read, were he to consult his own feelings, and the comfort and conve- 
 nience of the assembly, he ought, perhaps, merely second it, without 
 making any observations ; but it appeared to him, from the shadow of 
 the coming events, that, let a man's position in life be what it might, 
 great or small, who was connected with the property and institutions of 
 Ireland, it would be both weak and criminal, were he to shield himself 
 from declaring his sentiments, in the face of such a meeting as the 
 present, and in the face of his country. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) 
 He would own that, previous to the meeting in Dublin, on Friday, — 
 "when he saw the requisition and its array of names, forced from every 
 point of the compass, by the influence of the Government and the exer- 
 tions of the demagogues and the Priests, and which was styled " The 
 Great Aggregate Meeting," to make a diversion against the proposed 
 measvire of Lord Stanley, which, when he withdrew it last Session, 
 promised to introduce it again in the ensuing Session — (hear, hear) — 
 when he (Mr. Macartney) saw the names at that requisition his mind 
 misgave him, that a counter-agitation might damage the character of 
 the measure, as approved of by the English House of Commons ; but, 
 when three days since, he received a report of that meeting, his fears 
 were changed into admiration and surprise to find it so complete and so 
 abject a failure. He felt had they (the Conservatives) not met there 
 that day, the failure of Friday was sufficient to give that force and 
 effect to the measure which Lord Stanley had introduced. (Loud cries 
 of hear, hear, hear.) The requisition of the aggregate meeting in 
 Dublin consisted of forty Noblemen, sixteen or seventeen Baronets, 
 fifteen or sixteen Honourables, cum multis aliis ; but what was the re- 
 sult ? Why, that' a Noble, desei'ted by his order, was in the chair. 
 Two Baronets, ten or fifteen of the tail, with Dan at their head, and 
 the renowned Peter, of imperial notoriety, and the last, not least, par 
 nohile frairum, Sharman Crawford and David Ross, Secretaries of the 
 still-born Ulster Association. (Cheers and laughter.) But who went 
 under their wing ? Why, only four gentlemen from the shores of the 
 North of Ireland, representing the intelligence, prosperity, and respec- 
 tability of the North ; and whom it was found necessary to move and 
 second resolutions. (A laugh.) Such was the meeting of Friday last. 
 From that meeting the Conservatives had gained the greatest support 
 
59 
 
 to their cause. (Cries of hear, hear.) No resolution had been passed 
 in his mind at that glorious meeting' — (cheers) — the germ of an oppo- 
 sition to Lord Stanley's bill. (Hear, hear.) The question of Repeal 
 had been brought to their doors by the connivance of a weak and va- 
 cillating government — ^(cheers) — who, if they had the interests of the 
 -country at heart, would have told Mr. O'Connell, " agitate in your 
 own district, where you have a mob of your own principles and party ; 
 but do not attempt to set your foot in that district where you know, in 
 your heart, this moment, the question of Repeal is not entertained. 
 (Hear, hear.) You had people of your own religion and politics there, 
 but even they will not support that question ; and he (Mr. Maeartney) 
 would say, that many of the Roman Catholics who had foolishly urged 
 Mr. O'Connell to visit Belfast, were as much opposed to Repeal as any 
 one then present. (Loud cheering.) Mr. O'Connell had come twenty- 
 four hours sooner than was originally intended, and by doing so, he 
 ,(Mr. Macartney) would say, that he had libelled the people of the 
 North — (hear, hear, hear) — for, although they might have received 
 iiim on his way with disapprobation, he (Mr. Macartney) had that 
 opinion of the people, that he was sure they would let him pass in 
 scorn. (Cheers.) He had entered the town, as was truly said, like a 
 " thief in the night," with a carriage full of blunderbusses, in which sat 
 Steele and Co. — (hear, and laughter) — and in certain places where 
 they stopped to change horses, they took occasion to load the blunder- 
 busses. (Hear.) Now, was that a proper way for the great O'Connell 
 to make an impression upon the cool and thinking people of the North ? 
 (Hear, hear, and cheers ) No ; he little knew them, if that was the 
 course which had been originally suggested by him. (Hear, hear.) — 
 But he came not only like a thief in the night, but he went away as a 
 criminal in the day. Thanks to the exertion, the attentions, and the 
 steady good conduct of the authorities assembled in Belfast, from all 
 parts of the country, no casualty liad occurred, or a blot been inflicted 
 upon their county. But there was a blot sought to be stamped upon 
 Ulster by those who had accompanied liim, Mr. Steele and others, who 
 had, at the hour of twelve o'clock at night, called on the Magistrates 
 for a Police force to protect Mr. O'Connell, making affidavit that his 
 life was not safe, if he had not the troops to guard him, whilst there, 
 and also to preserve the peace of his embarkation. Such conduct as 
 that was a libel upon the North. It was the first time such a libel of 
 injustice was done the Northerns, and he (Mr. Macartney) thought it 
 would be the last. (Cries of " It is," and groans.) As to the question 
 of Repeal, he (Mr. Macartney) would ask, what had made the North 
 of Ireland flourish ? Was it not their connexion with England ; and 
 was it not their communication with all the world through the means 
 of England ? (Hear, hear.) Was it not from their intercourse with 
 men of intelligence, rank, property, and manufactures, that the North 
 was prosperous ? — (cheers) — and any measure that was calculated to 
 sever that connexion would, and should be detrimental to their coun- 
 try. (Loud cheering.) This demonstration would have its eftect upon 
 the mind of England, and show the English Members what the senti- 
 ment of Ulster was. The Southern population, and those of other 
 quarters, were pleased to suff'er the controul of the demagogues and 
 the Priests. The North would never consent to any such influence.-^ 
 (CheerO 
 
60 
 
 The resolution was tlien put and carried. 
 
 Viscount Newry and Moubne proposed the next resolution, whicli 
 he stated to accord completely -with his own opinions, and to which, h^ 
 hoped, the meeting- would unanimously agree to. The resolution was 
 in the following words : — 
 
 " That the piinciples of the bill introduced, during the last Session of Parliament, 
 by Lord Stanley, appears to us to be so consistent with justice, and the bill itself to 
 embody such equitable provisions, as, if passed into a law, will be suflicient to grapple 
 with the existing evil, and put an end to the^demoralising practices which have pre- 
 vailed at the Registering Sessions in Ireland, for the last eight years.'' 
 
 Mr. Emerson Tennent, M.P. rose and said, — The resolution of the 
 noble Earl who had preceded him (Lord Hillsborough), and the speech 
 in which It had been introduced, abundantly testified the imperative 
 necessity which existed for legislative interference ; that necessity had, 
 in fact, been admitted by all parties for the last five years ; but no sin- 
 cere or effectual attempt had been made to grapple with and strangle 
 the abuse, till Lord Stanley had, last year, introduced his Bill. The 
 support which that measure received from men of all parties, both in 
 the House of Commons and beyond it, was the best evidence at once 
 of their cons'^Iousness of the existence of the evil, and their confidence in 
 the efficacy of the yemedy, and against such a prevailing impression, the 
 only weapons with which the opponents could contend were, misconstruc- 
 tion and wilful distortion of its parts. To some of these misrepresen- 
 tations he (Mr. E. T.) would address himself. A few days ago, when the 
 arrangements to hold this meeting were finally made, he (Mr. E. Ten- 
 nent) took an opportunity of acquainting Lord Stanley with the intense 
 feeling throughout Ulster in which it originated ; and the attempts 
 which had been made in the Ulster Association, under the shadow of 
 an opposition to his Registration Bill, to obtain an expression of opi- 
 nion, which would thus have been trumpeted as the genuine sentiments 
 of the Province, in favour of reducing the franchise almost to the zero 
 of Chartism. He enclosed to his lordship a copy of the report of the 
 Association on the Registration laws generally, and his own bill in par- 
 ticular ; and he concluded his letter by suggesting, that, as this vast 
 and influential assembly had spontaneously met, in order to tender his 
 lordship their support in effecting the enactment of that bill, he might, 
 perhaps, be desirous of apprising them of his intentions, as regarded 
 its introduction, as well as how far his own sentiments had been in- 
 fluenced by the discussions on the measure in the House of Commons, 
 or the strictures of the Ulster Association and others throughout the 
 country. To that letter, he (Mr. E. Tennent) had received an answer 
 from Lord Stanley, the substance of which he would presently lay be- 
 fore them. And, first, as to the time and manner of the introduction 
 of the bill, Lord Stanley authorised him to say, that he stood ready for 
 the first moment that his friends thought it desirable to move. (Cheers.) 
 On the other point, as to any alterations which reflection, or the sug- 
 gestions of others, might have led his lordship to contemplate in bring- 
 ing the measure a second time before the House, his reply is as cha- 
 racteristic of the calm and mature deliberation with which the duty 
 was originally undertaken, as of the temperate and conciliating spirit 
 in which it will be followed up. " As to modifications," he says, " you 
 know, no one better, that the task of introducing it was not of my seek 
 pgj — that having undertaken it, I most carefully considered its provi- 
 
€1 
 
 sions, and, with the concurrence of our friends, put it into a shape 
 in which we thought it both a just and an effective measure. I se€^o 
 reason to alter the view which we then took, from any thing that has 
 since passed in Parliament or elsewhere ; but, I am not only ready, I 
 shall be thankful to receive, and consider with respect, the suggestions 
 of those who have more practical experience than myself, and too happy 
 to adopt them, if, on the one hand, I am satisfied of their justice, and 
 if, on the other, they will not throw additional obstacles in the way of 
 passing the bill. No doubt, there are some of its provisions more im- 
 portant than others, — and I do not think that I can more conveniently, 
 though I may more shortly, answer your questions, than by going 
 through the manifesto which embodies the views of the Ulster Asso- 
 ciation, so far as they relate to registration." Now, with regard to 
 the numbers of the Ulster Association, he (Mr. E. Tennent) was dis- 
 posed to speak of them with every deference and respect, as well from 
 their high rank and standing in society, as because there were amongst 
 them individuals to whom he was attached by private friendship, not 
 less than admiration of their talents, and appreciation of their sincerity. 
 But these very circumstances, of the station and eminence of the indi- 
 viduals, rendered it the more incumbent upon them to protest against 
 their acts and opinions being mistaken for a representation of the 
 genuine sentiments of this wealthy and powerful Prcvdnce. Against 
 such a conclusion, however, the assembly whom he had the honour to 
 address was the most effectual corrective and protection. (Cheers.) — 
 And his (Mr. E. Tennent's) most ardent hope was, that, when the pro- 
 gress of events shall have accomplished that consummation, which he 
 saw rapidly approaching — when all parties and denominations of Pro- 
 testants would be driven to make common cause, in order to ensure 
 their common defence — the Liberals of the Ulster Association would 
 discover nothing to contradict the assertion which he (Mr. E. Ten- 
 nent now made in the face of the assembled Conservatives of the Pro- 
 vince : — that their principles were not aggressive, but simply and 
 purely defensive — that they seek to infringe no man's liberty — to con- 
 tract no man's rights ; but, by God's assistance, and their own firm 
 union, to resist tyranny, from whatever quarter it may come — whether 
 from an individual or a multitude — and to preserve, with the last pulse 
 of their hearts, those rights of property and of person, and, above all, 
 those rights of judgment and of conscience, which shone upon the 
 world in the light of the Reformation, and which must relapse into 
 primoeval darkness, with the occurrence of any catastrophe that would 
 neutralize or overthrow it. (Cheers.) The Liberal Protestants of 
 Ireland misapprehended and wrong us, if they suppose that we have 
 any interest, or aspire to any, distinct and different from them ; they 
 have the same objects in view, and the same privileges at stake that 
 we have — their welfare, their liberty, and their happiness, are equally 
 threatened with our own, by measures now in agitation in Ireland ; and 
 we invite them — we entreat them to weigh calmly, and aside from all 
 jealousies of party, the petty differences which separate us, and to 
 make common cause with those who are their brethren and natural 
 allies, by all the ties of country, of kindred, of friendship, and religion. 
 (Loud cheers.) Mr. O'Connell has told them, on Tuesday last, that 
 4hey must either become Conservatives or Repealers : his own violence 
 
j62 
 
 ^Wlll ultimately drive them to the one or to the other alternative — and, 
 with such a choice before them, he (Mr. E. Tenneut) had little doubt 
 as to which they would prefer to adopt. (Cheers.) He (INIr. E. Teu- 
 nent) learned from those tumultuous cheers, that they adopted these 
 sentiments as their own — (renewed cheers) — and, in that spirit of 
 friendly argument, he would now proceed to meet the leading objec- 
 tions which had been made in the report of the Ulster Association to 
 the provisions of Lord Stanley's Bill. " I hail with satisfaction," says Lord 
 Stanley in his letter, "the admission in the report of the Ulster Asso- 
 ciation, that, in order successfully to oppose any future atteinpt to carry 
 ft bill similar to that of last session, it isnecessary to he prepared to pro- 
 pose such amendments of the present law, as are imperatively required 
 to remedy its many objectionable provisions and glaring defects, — 
 And I rejoice to find also, that, in many of tbe leading provisions of 
 my bill, and some which were the most decried, they are compelled to 
 concur." And his lordship then proceeded to notice the various points 
 of agreement and of difference, in the order in which they presented 
 themselves in the report. The first point at issue is the establishment 
 of an annual registration, as proposed by Lord Stanley, or the conti- 
 nuance of the quarterly visits of the assistant-barrister, as recommended 
 by the report. There is no individual who has had any experience of 
 the harrassing service imposed by these three-monthly attendances at 
 the registration courts, that must not long for their abolition, as a mon- 
 strous injustice to men on whose habits of industry and occupation, it is 
 a serious inroad in the exercise of a constitutional vigilance over their 
 political rights ; and an arrangement calculated to give an undue ad- 
 vantage, either to those idlers to whom politics is a profession, and 
 lounging in the courts is a matter of ordinary business ; or to those 
 wealthy candidates, who can afford to pay highly-salaried agents for 
 maintaining perpetual guard over their interests. This prominent 
 grievance Lord Stanley's Bill proposes to remove, by the substitution 
 of an annual for a quarterly registi'ation ; but to this the Ulster Asso- 
 ciation object, on the score of the expense and delay which they appre- 
 hend would ensue, if the whole body of the electors were to be con- 
 gregated once a-year at an annual sessions. Lord Stanley, however, 
 contends that the alteration is justified, not only by expediency, but on 
 the score of assimilation to the law of Scotland and of England ; and 
 as a more than counterbalance to the inconveniency they apprehended, 
 he remarks, that "the Association take no notice of the great addi- 
 tional facilities given to all parties, whether claimants or objectors, by 
 the provision of my bill, which multiplies the places for holding regis- 
 tration courts, ancl assigns a district to each — a facility ivhicli could 
 not be given by a quarterly registration.'' Another prominent objec- 
 tion taken by Mr. O'Connell in the House of Commons, has been re- 
 iterated by the Ulster Association, with reference to the particulars 
 of the voters description, as ordered to be set out in his notice of claim. 
 Here Lord Stanley perfectly agrees with the Association, that the de- 
 scription given should be of such a nature as is necessary for the iden- 
 ti/ication of the claimatit, and such general description of the property 
 as will preventfraudulent registration.'' " Perbaps," says his letter, 
 " I should add, and they might admit, as will enable the properly to be 
 identified : and adopting this principle, the necessary forms are a mat- 
 
 I 
 
63 
 
 ter of detail, and a fair subject for discussion." He (Mr. E. Tennent) 
 would beg to direct the attention of tbe meeting, and of the country, 
 to this and similar avowals of Lord Stanley, in reply to imputations of 
 a desu'e to embarrass or intimidate the claimant. In the principle of 
 the precautions he proposes, both he and his opponents are agreed, and 
 he only asks for a calm and dispassionate discussion, to accommodate 
 the machinery of the bill to the accomplishment of an object which is 
 thus avowed to be common to both. This, and similar declarations 
 are the best evidence of the animus with which Lord Stanley has un- 
 dertaken the task in which he has been egregiously misrepresented. — 
 Another, and an important point of the bill, was the power which it 
 proposes to confer of objecting to the registration of a claimant, or 
 the continuance of a vote on the list, without any previous and minute 
 notification of the several grounds to be taken, but under the penalty of 
 costs upon whichever party failed in substantiating his allegations. 
 Upon this point he could not do better than quote the words of his 
 Lordship's letter, in reference to the difference of opinion between 
 himself and the Ulster Association : — " The Association would admit 
 any person to object, but limit the objections to those of which specific 
 notice had been served upon the partj-, and on some public officer, as 
 in Scotland. I resti'ict the right of objecting, as inEng-land, to voters 
 or claimants, or their agents, but require no notice except as against 
 persons already on the registry, nor any specification of objections. — 
 Indeed, if, as they ttdmit, the claimant is in the first instance to prove 
 his title, he must be prepared to prove it against any and every objection 
 that can be raised. The Association are compelled to admit, that the 
 system pursued in Scotland of reqtiiring specific objections is liable to 
 abuse, as it contains no provision against an objector including in his 
 notice every possible objection ; and the remedy they propose is, to" 
 compel the registering barrister to saddle the objector with costs and 
 expenses for every objection not gone into, or not requiring rebutting 
 evidence. Thus every objection stated must be gone into by the ob- 
 jector, (though the claimant may have been registered on the very 
 first,) vmder pain of being visited with costs, to be paid to the registered 
 claimant ; and a penalty is imposed on an objector, though it be dis- 
 tinctly admitted, that, at the time of giving the notice, he bad every 
 reason to believe his objection well founded. I propose to authorise 
 the assistant-barrister to give costs, when he shall judge the objection 
 frivolous. Which is the most rational and the most practical course .''" 
 Another vital portion of Lord Stanley's measure is, the establishment 
 of a periodical revision for the removal of the disqualified, and the 
 names of the dead, from encumbeiing the lists. Upon this point he 
 (Mr. E. T.) would again read from Lord Stanley's communication his ■ 
 strictures upon the proposition of the Ulster Association : — " We 
 agree,'' says his Lordship, "that the Irish law should be adhered to, 
 which requires the claimant to prove his title in the first instance, but 
 the Association requires that ' he should then be protected from any 
 further impugnment of his right to vote, except on account of some 
 circumstances occurring, subsequently to his having been placed on 
 the register, and not previously adjudicated upon.' " I admit that a 
 voter, once on the register, should be protected against vexatious re-' 
 investigations. My bill requires that the objecter in such case should' 
 
64 
 
 prove his objection (act show ». prima facie case, h\xi prove it), befor* 
 the voter is ever called on for a defence — that he should prove it sub- 
 ject to costs for a frivolous objection ; but we contend, that the extent 
 of protection demanded by the Association will tend to keep on the re- 
 gister fraudulent voters, provided they afterwards can prove to have 
 been fraudulent when first put on. Further, that in the diflference 
 which unfortunately prevails in the decisions of different barristers, a 
 claimant successively rejected by a dozen different barristers, and having 
 put objectors to the expense of substantiating their objectors a dozen 
 times consecutively, if he can at last succeed in persuading one barrister 
 to revise the decisions of the other twelve, is immovably placed on the 
 register. Again, a claimant having been placed on the register by the 
 overruling an appeal of the objector on which he was first rejected is 
 protected against objections, which might have been urged at his first 
 claim, and which would have been urged, had they not been rendered 
 unnecessary by his rejection on other grounds. I might multiply cases, 
 but I think there will be sufficient to show, that protection to this ex- 
 tent passes the legitimate bounds, " and tends to the introduction for 
 life of fraudulent votes." Another anomalous circumstance connected 
 with the registration system in Ireland, was the imperfect nature of 
 the appeal which was attached to them — the registering barrister hav- 
 ing an absolute and irresponsible power in all cases of admission to the 
 franchise, except in so far as they were cognizable by a committee of 
 the House of Commons, and an appeal to a superior court being only 
 allowable in the case of a rejected claimant. On this subject he (Mr. 
 Emerson Tennent) would take the liberty to read an extract from the 
 manifesto of the Association : — " Your committee," says their report, 
 " consider it an object of the first importance, that an appeal to a com- 
 mittee of the House of Commons, on the right of a voter, should be 
 rendered, so far as possible, unnecessary. They cannot, therefore, ap- 
 prove of the English system, because it gives no means of redress 
 either to a claimant or to au objector, against an erroneous decision of 
 a registering barrister, except by a reference to such a committee : nor 
 of the Irish system, because it confines the right of appeal to the' 
 claimant. Your committee would therefore recommend, that the right 
 of appeal, on all points of law, (the final decision on questions of fact 
 having been already provided for in section IV.) should be conferred, 
 both on the claimant and the objector, and that a court of appeal should 
 be constituted, before which appellants might have such points de- 
 cided." " 1 am happy," says Lord Stanley, " to have the assent of the 
 Ulster Association in these main principles of my bill ; 1st, That it 
 would be of great advantage to obviate the necessity of appeals in the 
 House of Commons ; 2d, That for this purpose a court of appeal is ne- 
 cessary ; and 3d, That the right of appeal should be conferred, both on 
 the claimant and on the objector. In fact, these, together with the 
 notice to be given by claimants, to which the Association assent, the 
 abolition of certificates, which they also recommend, and the annual 
 revision (and they purpose a quarterly revision), constituted the essence 
 of the bill which was so acrimoniously opposed last session. I think it 
 doubtful how far questions of law and questions oifact can be separated 
 in the appeal, as proposed by the Association. They do not suggest 
 any new constitution of the court of appeal. I found the judge of 
 
«5 
 
 assize, already the authority referred to, on the one-sided appeal, and 
 I preserved the same authority when the appeal was extended to the 
 objector. If any other tribunal can be established, of as high legal at- 
 tainment, as far removed from temptation, and as free from the suspi- 
 cion of partiality, I see no reason for insisting that the appeal shall be 
 to the judge of assize. The substitution of the authority of a judge 
 for that of a jury, in cases of value, was suggested by the late Lord 
 Clements, sanctioned by the present Government, and adopted in the 
 House of Commons. The Association think that here again the ob- 
 jector should be subject to costs by every case where his objectisns are 
 not sustained — the claimant in none in any case whatever. I was of 
 opinion that both parties should be liable to costs, if there were no 
 legitimate ground for bringing the appeal or defending the vote. The 
 course recommended by the Association appears one-sided and unjust, 
 and, if I understand it rightly, gives costs against the objector when- 
 ever unsuccessful, and relieves the claimant when he frivolously puts 
 the objector to expense, in substantiating an objection already affirmed 
 by the barrister." Another Important question connected with regis- 
 tration is, the period during which an elector ahould actually occupy his 
 premises previous to being invested with any right, in order to avoid the 
 evil of creating batches of voters to carry any given election. The 
 Association, apparently forgetful of the object, propose that a man 
 should be registered immediately on coming into possession, and should 
 be enabled to vote in six months after registration. On this Lord 
 Stanley observes, " In England, freeholders and copyholders, with some 
 exceptions which extend to Ireland, must have been in possession six 
 months previous to the last day of July, before the annual registration ; 
 and all other claimants twelve months — that is, eight months at least 
 before registry. My bill proposed to give in Ireland the right of being 
 registered at the end of six months' possession, and of voting at the 
 expiration of the same periods which would entitle English voters of 
 the same class to put in their claims. What ground can there be for 
 a still greater difference in faVour of Ireland ?" These Were the prin- 
 cipal points of the bill in which Lord Stanley dissented from the 
 amendments proposed by the Associathm. He (Mr. E. T.) felt it tf» 
 be unnecessary to trouble the meeting with those points in Lord Stan- 
 ley's bill of which the Association fully approved. But there was still 
 a third class to which he would specially direct their attention- — namelv, 
 those alterations which the Association had suggested, and to which 
 his Lordship saw no good grounds upon the scoi'e of principle to object. 
 One of these, and one of the most important, Is the right which exists 
 in England of an elector to register, if, for the necessary time before- 
 hand, he has occupied, not the same house, but another of equal valufe, 
 and discharged all the taxes due upon each, and also the right of part- 
 ners to vote out of their joint premises, provided their value, if divided, 
 would constitute a £10 qualification for each. To the proposal of the 
 Association, that this provlshm of the law should be extended to Ire- 
 land, Lord Stanley says, " I am free to confess, that, at tills moment, I 
 am not aware of the circumstances which led to a difierence in the law, 
 and that in such instances generally the prima facie case is in favour 
 of assimilation." For his (Mr. E. T.'s) own part he could not but feel 
 
6G 
 
 that, there was the utmost justice in asldug- llie ani^adraent of the law 
 of Ireland, when lie saw* and knew iiunierous g-eutlemeu of \vc<alth and 
 property in Belfast avIio Avere excluded from tlie francliise on liie score 
 of their partRersliips, Tihilst their own porters Avere exercising- all the 
 I'ights of electors, being' iinpeded by no siich legal restriction. Anotlier 
 point Avhich he (Mr. E. T.) had taken upon hiirself to recommend to 
 the notice of Lord Stanley, -was the assimilation (tf the Irish law to 
 that of Eng-land, as reg-arded the tahing- of the poll and the duration 
 of elections, reducing' the period from five days to two in counties, and 
 to one in towns, an amendment on which there Avas, he knew, some dif- 
 ference of opini<jn, hut wliich, in his judgment, vrould g-o far to secure 
 tlie purity of election, and, in every man's experience, would contribute 
 much to the diminution of turmoil and excitement, and the maintenance 
 of peace and goodwill. To this proposition Lord Stanley says, in 
 reply, — " L'pon this subject I will only say, that if, as I understand, 
 Tou agree Avith the Association its discovering- an assimilation to the 
 Eng-lisli law as to the multiplication of polling- places, and the duration 
 of elections, I strongly recommend that that question sliould be kept 
 separate from registration, and be made the subject of a distinct bill. 
 If Irish members, without distinction of party, ai'e generally of opinion 
 that the adoption of the English law, in this respect, Avill tend to dimi- 
 }iish expense, and will, also, provide effectually for the peaceable and 
 impartial exercise of the elective fi-anchise, I think I may say, with 
 confidence, that they will meet with no oj)position on the part of the 
 representatives of England and of Sctitland." Tliere was one portion 
 of this subject with which, in framing his bill, he distinctly announced 
 his intention to abstain cautiously from intermeddling, namely, the 
 amount of the electni'nl franchisp — a point upon which such utter A'a- 
 riance of opinion exist, that to have disturbed its present settlement, 
 in the least degree, woidd have opened a door to discussions without 
 end. Even as it was, the entire gist and fury of. the assault in the 
 House of Commons was ingeniously contrived to create an impression 
 tliat the bill, though its author distinctly disclaimed all direct interfe- 
 rence with the franchise, was so adroitly designed as effectually to 
 produce that result by an unseen machinery which its framers secretly 
 aimed at, but shrunk from openly attempting. Again and again Lord 
 Stanley spurned this disingenuous imputation, and professed what he 
 professes now — that his object is not to destroy', but to discover the 
 bona fide francliise. If his bill can be shown to him to he constructed 
 so as in any degree to raise tlio franchise above the standard finally 
 fixed by the Reform Act, he is most willing an<l ready to make any 
 alterations that may render it accui-atelj conformable to it, without 
 .adding one farthing to its aimual amovmt. The opponents of the bill in 
 the House of Commonsealculated shrewdly v>heu they sought to make the 
 discussion in the Commons one \\\>ox\.frnnv]n>iC instead of one upon regis- 
 tration. Mr. O'Connell and his friends protested that tliere should be no 
 registration bill Avithout a clause to define (that is, to reduce) the fran- 
 chise ; none other would or ought to give satisfaction. This strata- 
 gem was AvLs.ely concocted, and not without a precedent. Five years, 
 also, no tithe hill could or ought to be satisfactory without an " appro- 
 jtviation clmisc,'' — but so long as that clause was attempted, it was 
 
67 
 
 foreseeu tliat no bill eoulil be bad wbatsoever — no possible settlement 
 coukl be arrived at ; it was a seton tbat eft^ctiTally prevcuted all beal- 
 ing" of tlio Vt ound. And suck Avas precisely tlie design and desire of 
 ,tbose whose interest it Avas to resist all auieudments wbatever in the 
 registration system. Mr. O'Connell clearly perceived, that, if Lord 
 Stanley would only toucli the franchise in any particular — extend it, 
 .diminish it, define it, or abolish it — alter it, in fact, in any shape, we 
 should have liad suck a storm raised ?is would effectually prevent the 
 boat from lauding-, a\id drive her back to sea again. (Cheers.) The 
 Ulster AssQciatiou, less v/ary and experienced than Lord Stanley, saw 
 .the seductiou of the trap, but tumbled bodily into it. They had no 
 doubts or misgivings upon tlie point. The settlement of a satisfactory 
 franchise, it was trvie, had occupied the anxious tiiougkts of tlie legis- 
 lature for years — it kad protracted the final settlement of the Keform 
 Bill itself, from 1830 till 1S32 — it might be sufficient to alter the 
 whole constitutional complexion of the empire, as the balance of judg^. 
 jnent inclined on either side — but for the Ulster Association, the sub- 
 ject kad neither difficulties nor alarms. (Cheers.) Witk tkom, too, 
 ,the settlement of a franchise was to be the first and indispensable step 
 •to the settlement of a bill, and the three tailors of Tooley-strect never 
 set too to cut out a coat or a constitution >vitk more confidence and com- 
 jjlaconcy, tkau jMr. Sharmau Crawford and Dr. IMontg-omery set about 
 cutting up and trimming the franchise of the Reform Act. (Iiaughter.) 
 No one of the party considered that the garment of 1832 exactly fitted 
 the elector, it Ava.s superfluously large — Dr. Montgomery was for cut- 
 ,ting it down to a modest and scanty covering. Mr. Skarmau Craw- 
 ford preferred, iu principle, no covering at all, but would consent to 
 a fig leaf — (ckeers) — gnd so to it they went — Dr. Montgomery took 
 pfi;" the first slice, by I'cducing the francliise from £L0 to £S. ■Mr. 
 Crawford would have sometking more — the electors were " industrious 
 and intelligent," and tkey were entitled to some furtker compliment. 
 Well, well, says Dr. Montgomery, a pound or two kere or tliere is 
 potking in dealing witk suck decent fellows ; come, we'll throw off 
 £2 more, and make it £G at once. (Cheers.) ^"ery good, replied Mr. 
 Sharman Crav/ford, that is coming- very near what 1 want ; but let us 
 call things by their proper names ; people in Down or Antriui may 
 understand you, when you talk of a £6 franchise, but my new friends 
 in Rochdale call that " household suffrage" — give it that name, and 1 
 am content. (Cheers.) Oh, no, replied Dr. Montgomery, the name 
 with us is a much more important matter than the substance, so, if you 
 please, we will take the fianchise to-day, amk christen it at our next 
 aneeting- — whereupon the assembly divided, Mr. Crawford was vigo- 
 rously outvoted by the eighty-five gentlemen present, and so this very 
 valuable Association adiourned to meet again, whenever they can una- 
 nimously agree upon the terms of the franchise. (Cheers and laugh- 
 ter.) And as, in their opinioij, no registration bill can be had till the 
 I'esults of that unanimity are embodied in it, Ireland must be content 
 to wait for this necessary reform, till all these great and confl'cling' 
 authorities shall have been calmly reconciled. (Cheers.) Now, magna 
 componere parris, just such a catastropkc as tliis, ojily not so good- 
 hmnoured a one, would iuevitablv kave follo\vu-d had 1 ,04'd Stardey 
 
68 
 
 instituted such a debate in the House of Commons, by attempting to 
 interfere, directly or indirectly, with the question of the franchise, and 
 the bill might have safely been postponed to the Greek calends to await 
 any agreement upon its preliminaries, had such a step been unwisely 
 attempted. The report of the Ulster Association is most copious 
 and elaborate upon this topic, which occupies at least one-fourth of its 
 entire contents ; but the following extract, from the notes of Lord 
 Stanley, will show with'how little show of justice a comparison has 
 been instituted between the franchise of the three countries, with a 
 view to establish the existence of any prejudicial discrepancy, as affect- 
 ing the franchise in Ireland, as contrasited with that which exists in 
 England and Scotland : — 
 
 " I have nothing to say to the remaining sections which support the vote by ballot, 
 the shortening of the duration of Parliament (in the practical adoption of Tihicb 
 principle, at the present moment, I apprehend they will meet with but little coun- 
 tenance on the part of her Majesty's Ministers), the qualification of representatives, 
 or the proportion which ought to be established between the number of representa- 
 tives from Ireland and from the rest of the empire ; but, after all that has been said 
 upon the subject of the comparative franchise in the three countries, I must say a 
 few words ori the 12th section — the franchise. The table furnished in this section 
 as a comparative view of the franchise is a most useful document, and I gladly avail 
 myself of it — 1st. As proving that Ireland has not been unjustly dealt with : and, 
 2d, as furnishing, together with the comments, a strong argument in favour of pur 
 interpretation of the existing franchise. 
 
 " The table of the Association shews that, in two instances as compared with 
 England, and one as compared with Scotland, the Irish freehold franchise is more 
 restricted ; while, as relates to the leasehold franchise, not only does Ireland possess 
 to an eqv.al extent, every franchise enjoyed by either country, with the exception 
 of the £50 ter.ancy at will (which is repudiated by the Association), but, in almost 
 every instance, a less term of years, and a lower amount of value, will qualify in 
 Ireland, than either in England or Scotland. 
 
 " First, as to the restrictions. In England a freehold of inlieritance in any case, 
 arid a freehold not of inheritance, provided the party occupy to the amount of 40s. 
 entitles to vote; whereas, in Scotland and in Ireland, the amount is £10, and in Ire- 
 land, for a freehold below £20, occupation is superadded as a condition. For the 
 amount, it is needless to avert to the grounds which led to the abolition of the Irish 
 40s. franchise. At the period of the Tleform Bill, the legislature found the 40s. 
 franchise existing in England, and did not abolish, though it restricted it, and where 
 the restrictions applied, it iixed the minimum at £10. In Scotland it found no 
 such franchise, and did not introduce it, but fixed the minimum at £10. In Ire- 
 land it had recently been abolished — the legislature did not restore it; but found the 
 minimum fixed at ^ 10, and left it so. Indeed the Reform Bill did not, in any way, 
 deal with the freehold franchise of the counties of Ireland — it conferred no new one 
 it altered nq old one, but it added the leasehold to the previously existing free- 
 holds, and in so doing conferred the right more extensively on Ireland than either 
 England or Scotland. On the same ground the law requiring occupation remained 
 unaltered; and it may be well for the ' Liberal' Association who select this point 
 of comparison with Scotland as a grievance, to bear in mind, that so far from ex- 
 tending popular rights, the very want of this restriction in Scotland was found 
 practically to give so much power to large land-owners to grant "fictitious" free- 
 holds, that the Select Comniittee on Scotch Fictitious "Votes, presided over by Mr. 
 Horsman, recommended that in Scotland occupation should be required of the 
 snialler freeholders, and that two successive Lord Advocates, with the sanction of the 
 present government, have gone so far as to advise that residence should be enforced 
 as a condition. 
 
 " And now let us turn to the leaseholds, and, adopting the plan of the Associa= 
 tion. place side by side the franchises possessed respectively by the three countries^ 
 Jesiving a blank in each case where no corresponding franchise exists.'' 
 
5$ 
 
 LANDED FRANCHISES IN COUNTIES. 
 
 England. 
 
 Scotland.) 
 
 £ £ 
 
 10 10 
 
 50 
 
 50 
 
 
 50 
 
 Irelaad. 
 £ 
 10 
 20 
 20 
 20 
 
 10 
 
 10 
 
 50 
 
 30 
 50 
 
 60 
 
 50 
 
 10 
 10 
 
 10 
 10 
 20 
 
 Original lessee or assignee of a term of 60 years. (57 in 
 
 Scotland,) ... 
 Original lessee or assignee of a term of 20 years, ... 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 9 years,... ... 
 
 Ditto, ditto. 14 years, 
 
 FRANCHISES REQUIRING OCCUPATION. 
 
 Sub-lessee or assignee of sub-lease of a term of 60 years, 
 
 (57 in Scotland.) 
 
 Original lessee or assignee of a term of 20 years, 
 Sub-lessee or assignee of sub -lease of a term originally 
 of 20 years, 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 19 years, 
 
 Ditto, ditto, 14 years, 
 
 Tenant at will, liable to a rent of 
 
 " Examine this table, the table of our opponents, and then say whether if inequa- 
 lity of the franchise be ground of complaint, Ireland be the portion of the empire 
 entitled to make it. 
 
 " But the table is valuable in another point of view,' because, for the purposes of 
 comparison, it sets side by side the £10, £20, and £50 franchises enjoyed by Eng- 
 land, Scotland, and Ireland respectively, as being co-extensive with each other ; and 
 either the Association Act most disingeniously in instituting a comparison between 
 similar amounts with different meanings, or else the several franchises, though in 
 each country conveyed in different terms, are in reality (as we contend they are) 
 the same in substance in each. I close with them on the most creditable assump- 
 tion, and it will be a great point gained in the controversy if we concur in this view, 
 because in that case the interpretation given to the law in one country ought to in- 
 fluence the interpretation of the corresponding words in the other. It is right, how- 
 ever, that we should see what the words really are, which, with reference to thp 
 Scotch Act, the Committee of the Association incorrectly quote. You are well 
 aware that the Irish county freeholder votes under the terms not of the Irish Reform 
 Act, which does not confer the franchise upon him, but of the 10th Geo. IV. 
 c. 8, 3, 2, and that the oath which he is required by the reform act to take is that 
 " I am a freeholder, &c. and that 1 have a freehold therein" of the clear yearly value 
 of ten pounds over and above, &c. The English act borrows its phraseology from 
 the preceding Irish act, and provides that the freehold shall be of the clear yearly 
 value often pounds,'* words identical with the qualifying words of the Irish free- 
 holders, and with the words of his oath. Can it be contended their construction is 
 different? 
 
 " The Scotch words relating lo owners (and to owners only, not tenants) are, 
 that " the subject on which he c\a.ims shall be of the yearli/ value of £\0, and shall 
 actually yield, or be capable of yielding, that value to the claiment, after deducting 
 feu duty, ground, annual, &c." — The words in italics have been ommitted by the 
 Association in quoting the franchise, which they do with approbation. 
 
 '' The leasehold qualitication in England is conferred on the lessee, &c. of any 
 
 term originally for a period of not less than years " of the clear yearly value 
 
 of pounds;" in Ireland, on a lessee, " having a beneficial interest therein of 
 
 the clear yearly value of not less than pounds.'' In Scotland, " where the 
 
 clear yearly value of such tenant's interest, after paying the rent and any other con- 
 sideration due by him, for his said interest, is not less than pounds." And it 
 
 is worth remarking, that in Scotland the leasehold qualification applies to a fran- 
 chise which in Ireland would be called a freehold, viz. a lease for the life of the 
 tenant. I know not how the difference of expression arose between the English and 
 the Scottish acts; I do know that the words of the English and Irish bills, as intro- 
 duced, were identical : and the reason of the change which was made publicly, and 
 for which the grounds were publicly assigned, are known to all. I am confident the 
 franchises were intended to be the same in principle; I believe they are the same 
 in effect ; and I do not believe that any English or Scotch lawyer has placed on the 
 English or Scoteh franchise the interpretation which is sought to be attached to the 
 words of the Irish act. 
 
 " But I have neither time nor inclination to argue this question at length, still 
 less to consider the propositions made by the Association for the alteration of the 
 franchise. I will just direct yoiw attention to a proposal (p. 19), while they repu- 
 diate the £50 tenant at will, as unduly dependant on his landlord, to place en tb# 
 
70 
 
 register al-1 persons rated for a twelve-month upon a hoMlng valued not liighcv llian 
 \£I0, whatever be his rent, without any reference to his beneficial interest in the 
 tenement; and to another passage in the same page, vhere, iu speaking of a fran- 
 chise depending on the cxces? oF annual rated value above his rent, such excess rs 
 correctly enough called the tenant's ' beneficial interest.* One other a"ginnent, 
 however, I must borrow from the Association in favour of our construction, too 
 remarkable to be omitted. They quote with approbation p. 12, and 18, a Scotch 
 franchise given to a tenant having paid a sum of £300 for his interest, whatever 
 his rent may be. A very little reflection sliews the ground for this, Tlie tenant 
 who has paid £.300 for his lease, subject to a 'ent, has given 30 j'jsars purchase of a 
 profit rent of £10; whatever his rent may be, he could dispor;e of his farm for £1 
 per annum more than he pays. His lease is to him, in the words of the English 
 Act, "of the clear yearly value of £10." In those of the Scotch, " liis interest, 
 after paying his rent, is not less than £10." '* In those of the Irish lie has a beneficial 
 interest therein of not less than £10 ;" and lastly, in the words of that part of the 
 Irish oath now abrogated, "a solvent tenant could fairly and without coUiisio;:, 
 afford to pay him £1U over and above the rept to which he is subject." The argu- 
 ment is new to me, but I own it strikes me as both sound and forcible. 
 
 " I am ashamed of the length to which my letter has run. It has been written 
 in haste, but as you well know I am tolerably familiar with the subject, and as I 
 am not aware of having stated anything erroneously or unfairly, you are perfectly 
 at liberty to make what use of it you think fit. I have nothing to conceal or dis- 
 guise. I rejoice at; having had an opportunity of bringing into a narrow compass 
 the points with respect to the registration bill, on which the Ulster Association and 
 ourselves are at variance : and of obtaining an admission from tliem of those in which 
 we concur; and I heartily wish, though I hardly tlarc expect it, that t5:e result may 
 be a more temperate discussion in Parliament of the points at issue, and the passing 
 of a measure wliicli shall give due protection to the bona fide voter, and adequate 
 means of purging the register of the fraudulent claiments. 
 
 " Believe me, my dear Sir, very sincerely yours, 
 
 'f J. Emerson Tennent, Esq. " SxANtEY." 
 
 VVitli tills Ing-enlous aud manly declarailoa of tlie oljjects and opi- 
 nions of its author, lie (Mr. E, T.) •would confidently leave -with tlie 
 meetiut^" tlie adoption of a resolution approving' of Lord Stanley's bill. 
 Before he sat down he would have been desirous to be pcimitted to say 
 a few words on the other subject of their meeting-, the Repeal of the 
 Union; but it was too great a one to be dismissed in the fe^y• sentences 
 Tvliich was all lie could with propriety clairn from the time of the 
 meeting, and he preferred leaving it altogether to those avIio v.ere to 
 follow him, and confining himself strictly to the resolution in his hand. 
 The lion, gentleman then resumed his seat amidst loud cheers. 
 
 Colonel Close, of Di umbanagher Castle, proposed the next reso- 
 hition, and expressed his conviction, that, from the concentration of 
 opinion in favour of Lord Stanley's Bill, in the last Session, there wa.^ 
 every possibility that it would pass during the present. The resolii" 
 tion was as follows : — 
 
 " Tliat the fact of this Bill containing provisions identical with those iiUreduced 
 on numerous previous occasions, by the various Law Officers of the Crown in Ire- 
 land, together with the favourable reception which it met with by men of all parties 
 in the House of Commons, affords the best possible grounds for confidence in its 
 being carried during the present Session of rarliament." 
 
 George Dunbak, Esq., INI.P., in seconding the resolution, said— 
 My lords and gentlemen, I thank you from my heart for your flatter- 
 ing reception. (Hear.) I have every confidence that this bill of Lord 
 Stanley's will pass at no distant period. It is scarcely possible to sup- 
 j>ose it will not, when you consider, as stated in the resoUition, that 
 bills containing provisions, identical with those in Lord Stanleys have 
 
71 
 
 been Introduced by various Iiiw officers of the crown ; and, that this 
 bill, as the resolution g-oes on to state, uiet with u lavourablc reception 
 from ir.cn of all parties. (Hear.) As I Avcut very fully intt) theproofs 
 of the first of these propositions, on a recent occasion, at a meeting held 
 in May last, in this town, at which your lordship was present, I do not 
 think I would be justllied in occupying" your time, and the time of this 
 meeting, by again going into them at length ; besides, my lord, I ob- 
 serve that tlie opponents of the bill do not persist in denying the fact 
 — I shall enumerate the bills as briefly as I can. The first bill was 
 brought in by the present master of the rolls for Ireland and Judge 
 Perriu, in August, lS3o — passed the Commons, but was lost in the 
 Lords, in consequence of the very late period of the session, at which 
 it was sent up. (Hear, hear.) The next was in 183G, by Lord Mor- 
 peth and Mr. O'Loghlen ; another in 1838, by Mr. Maule, the then 
 jnember for the toNvn of Carlow, a Liberal, and supporter of the go- 
 vernnient ; and in 1839 ; Mv. O'Brien, the member for Limerick, 
 brought in his bill. Now, my lord, those bills, one and all were, in 
 principle, the same as Lord Stanley's, and brought in by the very party 
 now so strongly opposed to it ; and the very man who now applies such 
 gross epithets to Lord Stanley, not only supported the bill of 1835, 
 but he was the very first man that proposed to alter the registration 
 law in this country. On the 29th of April, 1835, he gave notice of a 
 motion to consolidate and amend the law of elections and of registry 
 in Ireland, so as to assimilate it to that of England. But, my lord, 
 there is a much stronger reason to justify me in supposing, that this 
 bill of Lord Stanley's must soon pass, than the mere fact of her 3Ia- 
 jesty's ministers having- introduced siniilar measures. I say, my lord, 
 the state of crime, of bribery and perjury, acknowledged to exist, and 
 to ai'ise from the present state of the registration law, and to wliich 
 this bill is calculated to put an end, justifies me in concluding, that the 
 bill must pass. And what are the objections to the bill ? That it will 
 have the eflfect of reducing the number of electors in Ireland ; and, 
 therefore, some of the Radicals propose to amend the law in this way, 
 by bringing in an act that will enable those men who now obtain the 
 franchise by perjury to have it legally — that is, legalise what has been 
 obtained by perjury and fraud. Was such a prop©sition as this ever 
 heard of? There is another reason given, and one more absiud than 
 the one just mentioned, and the only, by the bye, that was stated by 
 any of the speakers (for I carefully examined the speeches as given in 
 the Monitor, which T hold in my hand.) At the great tittle meeting, 
 held in Dublin — (hear, hear) — at which there appears to have been 
 great noise, but little wool, and where, too, a friend of mine, Dr. 
 Montgomery, was very badly treated, because he ventured to speak 
 truth ; but I can assure the Doctor the account has been settled, and 
 compound interest paid on it to ]Mr. O' Council, at the Repeal niceting 
 here — where the very reporters that were close beside could scarcely 
 hear him, and at last he was obliged to give it up in despair. But, my 
 lord, to return to the I'cason given at that meeting by two gentlemen 
 who spoke : it was this — " why attempt to do away with bribery and 
 perjury in Ireland, v/hen it exists in England and Scotland r" One 
 speaker says — " The counties in Scotland were swarming with ficli- 
 
72 
 
 tious voters, but why was not that immoi*ality i-etnoved ? (Hear*, hear*.) 
 Because it was at the Tory side." (Groans.) Again, he says — " I 
 read that the counties of Scotland swarmed with fictitious voters to such 
 an extent, that corruption now existed there to as great an extent as it 
 did before the passing of the Reform Bill.' Well, my lord, the speaker 
 again says, this is not put down because it is on the Tory side ; but 
 he does not venture to deny the existence of the perjury and fraud in 
 Ireland. But one gentleman does — one, I believe, not in the habit of 
 stopping at trifles, as you will hear— -"Lord Stanley has been taunted 
 here to-day. and justly taunted, for not turnins? his attention to the 
 bribery which is carried on in England ; and bribery so manifest and 
 so disgraceful, as that which was practised in Ludlow and Cambridge, 
 never was witnessed. In Ireland we have no bribery, with the excep- 
 tion of one small borough in the South ; and I will name it, as I con- 
 sider it a disgrace to the country. With the exception of the borough 
 of Kinsale, bribery is not heard of in the land." (Cheers.) Oh ! my 
 lord, is it any wonder there should be bribery, perjury, murder in the 
 land, when a man in such a situation would be found to utter such un- 
 truths, and find men to cheer him ? There is but one answer to be 
 given to this statement respecting crime in England ; that, if such is 
 the case, why not bring in their bills, and then they shall see that they 
 shall have good for evil, they shall have our hearty support, though 
 they deny us theirs. (Cheers.) Another reason, my lord, why Lord 
 Stanley's bill is likely to pass, and it is the last I shall ofi"er — the Con- 
 servatives are a united body, while our opponents are the very reverse 
 — (hear, hear, hear, and cheers) — or, as Dr. Montgomery at that meet- 
 ing has eloquently expressed it: — " Our enemies (he says) are linked 
 together like a chain cable which binds the mighty vessel, whilst we 
 are like the rope of sand. ' Why are we like the chain cable ? — it is 
 because of our firm, simple, unbending, unyielding principle to bend or 
 connect them ; and I tell them, my lord, they never can, and need never 
 expect, to hold together. (Hear.) I do hope before our Roman Ca- 
 tholic brethren will again surrender their judgment to designing de- 
 magogues, and endanger the peace of this great and prosperous town, 
 by again renewing the Repeal question, they will consider that object 
 never can be obtained except by bloodshed ; and, if obtained, must lead 
 to the dismemberment of this great empire ; but, if they will persist, 
 I do trust the Liberal Protestants will unite with us in heart and hand 
 in defence of the throne, and implore her Majesty to put this question 
 at rest for ever. Nothing shall induce us to say a severe or harsh 
 word against the Roman Catholics, but I do beg they will recollect 
 that they are under many obligations to their Protestant brethren in 
 this place — look at our charitable institutions — are the doors not 
 thrown open to them? I shall just mention one, our poor-house — one 
 third of the inmates are Roman Catholics, while the Roman Catholics 
 do not subseribe one-ninth part of the funds by which that institution 
 is supported. I shall now, my lord, conclude in the words of Lord 
 Charlemont, at the meeting in Dublin — he would say to these men 
 about to assemble in Belfast, " persevere in supporting the atrocious 
 measure of Lord Stanley, and you will serve essentially the cause of 
 Ireland." (The hon. gentleman then sat down amid loud cheers ) 
 
73 
 
 Makcus M'Causlanb, Esq., Fruithill, with some brief remarks, pro- 
 posed tlie following^ resolution : — 
 
 " That we distinctly and unequivocally disavow and repudiate the imputation, 
 which has been unsparingly directed against the supporters of Lord Stanley's Bill, of 
 a design, indirectly and covertly, to abridge the elective franchise, as confirmed by 
 the Reform Act of 1832 ; but that, on the contrary, v?e desire the enactment of that 
 measure, solely as a means of declaring and carrying oft tiie intention of the existing 
 law." 
 
 Mr. EicHARD Davison said, he rose to second the resolution just 
 read, and he said it with unaffected sincerity, that he regretted that 
 this duty had not devolved on one of more influence ; because there 
 were hundreds of those around him, whose rank and station would give 
 double effect, in a meeting like the present, to the sentiments he was 
 about to express. But the committee were pleased to signify a wish, 
 that he should undertake it, and as he felt that that wish was not the 
 language of compliment but of sincerity, and as he had long entertained 
 the opini&n, that individual feeling should, in almost all cases, yield to 
 public duty, he consented. (Cheers.) He knew of no principle, the 
 cultivation of which should be more strenuously enforced, on occasions 
 like the present, than that of individual, activity. It is a combination 
 of atoms which foimis the mass — (loud cries of " hear, hear") — and as 
 well might you expect commerce to flourish or manufactures to exist, 
 where all was apathy or indolence around, as that a great political 
 measure could be accomplished without strenuous individual exertion. 
 (Loud cheers.) The twin sister of individual activity is union. (Hear.) 
 Union is strength ; and what family — what community — what nation 
 as such, can prosper without it. As well, therefore, may we hope, that 
 Ireland can independently exist, or that her national prosperity can 
 continue, if severed from Great Britain, as that we Conservatives can 
 secure and maintain our now opening position, if we become divided — 
 or that the seeds of strife, religious or political, bo sown amongst us. 
 We have not only a common enemy to contend with, but we have to 
 remove some existing prejudices from the minds of many excellent and 
 amiable men, now but slightly separated from us. (Cheers.) Let us 
 not, therefore, he implored them, cast stumbling blocks in their way. 
 Treat them not as enemies, but as friends ; win them over by gentle- 
 ness and forbearance, which, in cases like the present, conquer more 
 than the sword of a Wellington. (Hear, and great cheering.) The 
 design and objects of Lord Stanley's bill have been most ably and sa- 
 tisfactorily explained by his esteemed friend, Mr. Emerson Tennent ; 
 but the portion of it to which he meant to confine the attention of the 
 meeting was that embodied in the resolution — the alleged design, indi- 
 rectly and covertly made, to abridge the elective franchise, as con- 
 ferred by the Reform Act of 1832. And here, in the outset, he begged 
 to repeat a fact already stated and observed upon, by Mr. Tennent, 
 with the view more fully of impressing it on their minds, that Lord 
 Stanley's hill, in no one clause or section of it, interferes ivith the elec- 
 tive franchise as established hy the Reform Act. It does not create any 
 new — nor does it abolish any existing one. The Reform Act esta- 
 blished, according to the nature of the property and the occupation or 
 non-occupation of it, a certain franchise, varying in value from £10 to 
 £50 per annum. In counties, the words are, persons having a benefi- 
 cial interest of the clear yearly value of so much over and above all 
 
rent and taxes. In boroughs, tlie franchise arises from the mere occu- 
 pation of a house, warehouse, or shop, bona Jide of the clear yearly 
 value of £10. So that from these words it is clear that the value was 
 not intended as a fictitious or colourable one, but a substantial and 
 huna fide interest. One would whip a schoolboy if he put any other 
 interpretation upon it. (Loud cheering.) On this point all paities 
 are now agreed. The working of the Reform Act, like many other 
 pieces of Whig machinery, was found unsatisfactory — he had almost 
 said impracticable — and lawyers were at issue as to the true interpre- 
 tation of many of its clauses. This aftbrded fine scope for ingenious 
 
 minds, and it proved also a fertile one for deep and designing ones 
 
 (Hear, hear.) The first assault made upon the franchise was through 
 the instrumentality of some of the Radical and R,oman Catholic Assis- 
 tant-Barristers, the nominees of the present Government, by the ad- 
 mission at the registry sessions of persons who swore up to the franchise 
 in a qualified way, thus, that their house or land was woi'th £10 a-year 
 to, them, and thus the occupiers of oyster-shops, sheds, and hovels, became 
 entitled to the elective franchise. (Cheering.) No town in Ireland 
 can attest this fact more strongly than Belfast, but it stands recorded 
 from various parts of the kingdom in the evidence taken before the Fic- 
 titious Votes Committee. Now, a £10 fi-anchise, one would have 
 thought, meant a £10 franchise ; but, according to the law laid down 
 by some of Mr. O' Council's registering barristers, it meant no such 
 thing — for if a house Avas worth only £5 or £6 a-year, and that you 
 produced witnesses to prove that a good and solvent tenant could not 
 afford to give more for it ; yet, if the claimant swore that it was worth 
 £10 a-year to him, that is, by a combination of the profits of his trade, 
 no matter what the actual value of his house might be, he was admit- 
 ted ; and this, in times past, has, over and over again, occurred in his 
 (Mr. D.'s) own presence, against the true interpretation of law, in op- 
 position to argument, and in defiance of common sense. (Hear, hear, and 
 tremendaus applause.) Thus they would perceive that the law was 
 perverted, that the bona fide test of the franchise, as established by the 
 Reform Act, was trodden under foot, and that fictitious votes, through 
 the instrumentality of perjury, became crowded upon the lists. He 
 did not desire to give offence by the statement of any opinion, as to 
 which party most availed themselves of either this or of any other of 
 the demoralising courses alluded to by his friend, Mr. Tennent ; but 
 this he did know, that the Conservatives had long felt and laboriously 
 struggled for the abolition of one and all of them, whilst the Govern- 
 ment, Mr. O'Connell, and their Radical opponents — these boasted 
 friends of liberty — by their conduct during the whole of the last ses- 
 sion, and apparently up to this hour, seem resolved to encourage and 
 perpetuate the evil. (Hear, hear.) The patriots of the present day 
 are a spurious race ; they can talk largely of liberty, but they neither 
 know nor feel its ennobling influence. (Hear, hear.) Place, power, 
 and popularity, are the gods they worship, and they prefer the tainted 
 atmosphere of a corrupt borough system of their own manufacture to 
 the pure and balmy air of the mountain top. (Hear, and loud cheers.) 
 Patriots, now-a-days, are traders in politics, and it is as much part of 
 the business of a man of the people, when he wants to accomplish a 
 political end, to clothe it in the garment gf popular rights, as it is of a 
 
to 
 
 hypocrite, when he has perscaial ends to accomplish, t® deck himself in 
 the habiliments of sanctimonious huraiiity. (Hear, hear.) But whilst 
 our opponents agree with us, that Lord Stanley's bill does not directly 
 touch the franchise, they assume, from certain machinery ho has em- 
 ployed, that his design is indirectly and covertly to do so. (Hear.) — 
 We fling- back upon them the unworthy imputation, because it rests on 
 an ill-directed surmise. But as they have assigned reasons for such 
 their opinion, he felt bound, in fair dealing to them, to meet, and fairly 
 grapple with their arguments. First, then, they allege thaft Lord 
 Stanley, by establishing rating- as the test of value, aims at the re- 
 duction of the franchise. (Hear.) Now it struck his (Mr. D.'s) humble 
 judgment, that a more erroneous or ill-founded argument never was 
 used by I'ational men — (hear) — and he trusted he should be able satis- 
 factorily to prove, that a fairer or more impartial test could not well 
 have been selected, nor one so wisely calculated to strike at the root of 
 the awful perjuries which the present system has engendered. (Hear.) 
 Kates are a uniform standard of taxation imposed upon property ac- 
 cording to the estimated annual value. That value is ascertained by 
 competent, sworn, and irapaft'tial valuators, who have no personal end 
 to obtain, political or otherwise. If the rate be too high, the party 
 aggrieved has always the berwefit of an appeal — if too low, other rate- 
 payers have the same remedy in order to reduce their own taxation ; 
 or, by the institution of a just comparison, the attention of the autho- 
 rities is diiected to tlie omission, and thus errors are corrected. And 
 if a man pay his county, municipal, poor, and other rates, according to 
 an estimated value, placed by indifi^erent parties upon his property, why 
 not also take the same ascertained value as the criterion for estimating 
 his political franchise? The Ulster Association report says : — " It is a 
 constitutional principle that taxation and representation should go hand 
 in hand." He quoted this as corroborative of his view. Can any man, in 
 the spirit of fairness, say, that this principle is unjust, or that it is not 
 calculated to work impartially towards all, without distinction of sect 
 or party ? In Belfast we have our municipal tar, our County, or 
 Grand Jury tax, our poor rate, and we shall shortly have our t»ater 
 tax, and, under each of these, a separate and distinct valuation. (Hear, 
 hear.) Now, sm-ely from such criterions there can be no difficulty in 
 arriving at a fair estimate of value for our political franchise, and there 
 is no corporate or borough town in the kingdom, which has not two 
 or more of these assessments- By adopting these, then, as the criterion 
 of value, you not only accomplish the end impartially, but at one blow 
 sweep away both the temptation and power of committing perjury from 
 the claimant. (Loud cheers.) Secondly — But then they say, admitting 
 all this in principle, in practice rating is an uncertain test of actual 
 value — 1st, because the valuators always estimate under the real 
 amount ; and 2d, that they make certain deductions for repairs, insu- 
 rance, local taxes, &c., &c., all of which diminish the gross value, as 
 appears on the face of the rate book, by 2.5 or 30 per cent., and that, 
 by this means, they say, if you take a £10 rating, it would have refe- 
 rence to a £\2 or £14 house instead of a £10 one. (Hear, hear.) — 
 Now, all this is quite true, and has beea admitted over and over again 
 by Lord Stanley, and his reply is — I don't want, in that case, to take a 
 £10 rate which wetrld represeut a £12 heuse, but I will take an £'8 
 
76 
 
 rate, or any other one which will truly represent the £10 house. Or 
 I v/ill adopt any one defined principle on an unvarying- system, which 
 can be raised or diminished on such a scale as will repi'esent a bona 
 Jide £10 house. (Hear, hear.) Let this be settled thus — take first 
 the actual full value of a tenement ; deduct from that, — 1st, a fixed per 
 centage, as a general security against our valuation, but let both be 
 fixed the full value, and the exact and invariable p7^oport{on by which 
 it is to be reduced ; — 2nd, a fixed proportionable sum for repairs ; — 3d, 
 a fixed proportion for insurance, and let the balance represent if it will, 
 bona Jide, the £10 house. Now, if this principle is admitted, and he 
 defied reason to contradict it, what remains then to be discussed and 
 enquired into and fixed, is, what exact amovmt of rate will represent 
 £10 of actual value. This, if fixed on any unvarying and ascertained 
 scale, Lord Stanley will adopt, and thus preserve the franchise and the 
 Reform Act, and sweep away for ever the amalgamation which has 
 followed in its train. (Hear.) Thirdly — Trial by Jury, in all cases 
 of disputed value, is a course recommended in the report published by 
 the Ulster Association. Any one conversant with the practice of the 
 registration court, as at present constituted, will see the impractica- 
 bility of thi'- course. (Hear, hear.) In the first place, the empannelling- 
 of a jury, and the trial of all these cases bj them, would, of itself, con- 
 sume several days. Such a practice has no precedent elsewhere, and you 
 might just as well take also the remaining civil bill eases out of the bar- 
 rister's hand, and try them all by jury — the thing is impracticable. It 
 would make the court machinery too ponderous for the necessary active 
 discharge of its duties. Besides, who would constitute your jury ? 
 Why, your borough electors, parties having a direct interest in the 
 question at issue. (Hear.) The Committee of the Ulster Association, 
 feeling' this, actually suggest a hint, under the words, '' due pt'ovision 
 should be inade for the impartial empannelling of the jury," either to 
 place some coercive enactment on the Sherifi' in this respect, or to take 
 the matter wholly out of his hands, and place it, I presume, in the 
 hands of " The Ulster Association." He (Mr. D.) could not, for the 
 life of him, understand the opposition which this bill had encountered 
 on this single jDoint of taking- rating- as a test of value, without attri- 
 buting- motives, which, as they gravely reflect on the character of a 
 party, he should abstain from imputing. He might call them factious 
 without offence, for he thought, to all rational minds, he had demon- 
 strated them to be so. But that no misunderstanding may exist on 
 the point, he called upon their opponents, as fair men, to suggest some 
 other equally safe and certain test of value — (hear, hear) — embracing- 
 the objects he had enumerated, and they held the pledged honour of a 
 British nobleman made in the senate, that he is ready to adopt it. If 
 this be refused, what signifies then, their boasted patriotism ? He 
 called upon their opponents, as moral men, to join them in interposing 
 against the commission of the foul and deadly crime of perjury, by 
 resting", on the key- stone of this bill, an arch which will enable claim- 
 ants to pass over the polluted streams of infamy, which but too many 
 have waded through, to the attainment of those political rights which 
 we neither desire to abrogate or annul. Mr. Davison then related an 
 anecdote he had heard, relative to a plan laid to intercept Mr. O'Con- 
 nell in his progress to Belfast. An innkeeper in a town on the route, 
 
77 
 
 not a hundred miles from Belfast, was applied to to have post horses 
 ill readiness. He peremptorily refused to supply them ; but, on being- 
 remonstrated with, complied. Still reluctant that evenJiis hacks should 
 be disgraced in taking part in such a mission, he consulted a friend as 
 to how far he would be justified in giving Dan a course or two round 
 the Market-house, almost opposite his door, and sending liim out of 
 town by the road he had entered. (Cliecrs and laughter.) Had this 
 innocent plan succeeded, he (Mr. D.) would have deeply regretted 
 it, because it would have prevented the demonstration which Mr. 
 O'Conuell's visit had given of his unwelcome errand. His visit was 
 an absolute failure ; as must always prove the visits of an agitating de- 
 magogue in peaceable, Protestant Ulster. So long as they thus pre- 
 sented such an array of constitutional resistance to the common enemy, 
 they had nothing to fear. It would intimidate him — it would reflect 
 honour upon them. (Loud and long continued cheering.) 
 
 Sir Robert Bateson, Bart., proposed the next resolution, and was 
 received with loud cheers and Kentish fire — He Avas sensible of the 
 honour done him, but was not vain enough to attribute the applause 
 to anything in himself, but to his being one of the members for the 
 Protestant county of Derry — a title he would not barter for anything- 
 the ministry had it in their power to bestow. (Cheers.) He felt proud 
 of standing side by side with that great and good man Doctor Cooke, 
 who also is a Derry man. (Tremendous cheers, and cries of " Derry," 
 and " No surrender.") The men of Derry stood forward that day in 
 a proud position. (Cheers.) As a member for Derry, he would read 
 them what he was sure would meet their assent. He held in his baud 
 a i-esolution, which was a vote of thanks to Lord Stanley, for iiiitroduc- 
 ing his bill ; it was but a just tribute, that the thanks of Ulster men 
 be given to his noble friend for advocating their cause. (Cheers.) — 
 No man of integrity could object to the bill ; it was calculated to put 
 down the system of perjury which was carried on at present. Lord 
 Stanley never was met by fair argument, but was assailed by low, vile 
 abuse, and scurrility, which was a disgrace to the lips uttering it — he 
 was termed a " hypocrite," a " miscreant lord," and " scorpion Stan- 
 ley ;" but he may laugh such ribaldry to scorn, emanating, as it does, 
 from the lips of the disturber of our peace — I won't pollute my lips by 
 mentioning his name — (Cries of " you're right") — who had the audacity 
 to call Dr. Cooke and Dr. Stewart " brutal monsters." (Cries of "Oh ! 
 oh !") And why ? because they came forward to protest against per- 
 jury and fraud, and thus your ministers are assailed by ribaldry, for 
 supporting measures which do credit to themselves and their country ; 
 but we despise the low abuse of that imperial disturber of the peace, 
 whose name, I say again, I won't pollute my lips by mentioning. — 
 (Cheers.) He (Sir 11. B.) was surprised in reading the account of the 
 Dublin meeting, where there was a long list of high-sounding names, 
 •that it would have been tolerated to call Lord Stanley a '- miscreant." 
 (Cries of " it was base.") This meeting is a defensive meeting ; had 
 we been let alone, there would have been no meeting ; the Association 
 might have gone on, though it dwindled down to 85 present ; but 
 when " the disturber" came to agitate this peaceful town, then it was 
 time for the " lion of the north" to rouse itself. Had he come quietly 
 among us, we might have treated him with silent contempt. Troops 
 
of horse and artillery have been brought among us, to the great incon- 
 venience of our gallant defenders, brought from a distance to protect 
 the disturber of our peace, at this inclement season. What an idle — ■ 
 what a ridiculous farce — each town in Down is filled with troops, and 
 who's to pay the expense ? Why, we are ! (cries of " it's too bad") ; 
 and if you ask the soldiers what brought them here, they would tell 
 you they did not know. Regarding the resolution in his hand, which 
 was a vote of thanks to Lord Stanley, he would only say he was so 
 fortunate as to know that gentleman- -he was amiable in every respect, 
 and even his tenants, on his Tipperary estate, call him the best of Irish 
 landlords — he resides among them when Parliamentary duties permit, 
 and is beloved by them all. (Loud cheers.) He (Sir R. B.), in con- 
 clusion, would only say, what he was sure all would re-echo — 
 
 " On Stanley ! on !" 
 (Long-continued cheering.) He then read the resolution, as follows : 
 " That the thanks of the meeting .are gratefully offered to LorJ Stanley for the 
 laborious zeal, the discretion, and sound judgment, which characterise:! his proceed- 
 ings with reference to the bill, duiing the last session of Parliament ; and that we 
 desire earnestly to impress upon his lordship, the urgent expediency of his taking the 
 earliest possible opportunity for its rc-introduction.'' 
 
 Lord Adam Loftus in seconding the resolution which had just been 
 proposed by Sir Robert Bateson, said, that he fully concurred in the 
 object of the present meeting. The meeting was one of no little im- 
 portance and interest, not only to this country, but to the empire at 
 large. Such a demonstration as the present must have a considerable 
 influence on the acts of the approaching session of Parliament. (Hear, 
 liear.) The present was a crisis that must lead to some important 
 changes in the government of the country. (Loud and long-continued 
 cheering.) Could it be supposed, that, while the foreign and domestic 
 relations of the empire were rendered so precarious in their issue, by 
 the conduct of the present ministry — that, while the government had 
 received, by the repeated minorities in which they were placed, mani- 
 fest proofs of the want of public confidence and public support, could 
 it be imagined, he repeated, that a government, proceeding in such a 
 manner, and so opposed by the public opinion of the country, could 
 possibly remain much longer in power? The present meeting was 
 calculated to hasten an answer to the question. He was glad to have 
 an opportunity of stating his sentiments thus publicly on such a sub > 
 ject, and, at the same time, of expressing his unqualified confidence in 
 the benefits likely to result from Lord Stanley's proposed measure. — 
 Lord Stanley's bill was of such a tendency as to put down the attempts 
 of the Catholics and their priests, to destroy the franchise of the coun- 
 try, by turning it to their own purposes. The present demonstration 
 was calculated to effect much good in the attainment of such an object. 
 Its consequences would produce a new and bright era in the history 
 of the empire, by regenerating the representation of the country, and. 
 raising the Protestant interest of the land to such a position, as to se- 
 cure the rights and privileges of the people, on a sound and immove- 
 able basis. (Great cheering.) The noble lord then referred to the 
 present agitation for a Repeal of the Union, and observed, that the 
 subject should occupy the attention of the approaching session. — 
 (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) Me said that a measure ought to be 
 
79 
 
 introduced into Parliament, condemnatory of the present proceedings 
 of the agitator; he would not condescend to call him by his name. — 
 He hoped that Parliament, in its deliberations, Avould pronounc e such 
 agitation as treasonable and rebellious. (Cheers.) The sedition and 
 rebellion implied in the proceedings of the Repealers, called on Par- 
 liament to pronounce their opinion on such treasonable purposes, and 
 at once to put an end to their agitation. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) — 
 His lordship then argued that the Imperial Parliament had testified 
 their fostering care towards Irish interests, by affording them the 
 same protection as was extended to England and Scotland. (Cheers.) 
 He further stated, that the Imperial Parliament had gx-anted to the 
 Roman Catholics of Ireland, that emancipation which was denied to 
 them by their Irish Parliament. The noble lord concluded his obser- 
 vations, by calling on the govermeut to adopt some measure, proclaim- 
 ing the repeal agitation as identified with treason, and calculated 
 to promote the dismemberment of the empire ; and sat down amid 
 loud cheers. 
 
 J. W. Maxwell, Esq., J.P., of Finnebrogue, moved the next reso- 
 lution^ for the adoption of a petition in favour of the bill. 
 
 " That a petition to Parliameat be adopted, and signed by this meeting, in sup- 
 port of Lord Stanley's bill, and forwarded for presentation as soon as the forms of 
 the House of Commons admits of its reception.'' 
 
 John Batks, Esq., of Belfast, in seconding the resolution, said they 
 bad every encouragement in sending the petition ; all Ulster is with us 
 (cheering) — and every one present shall be furnished with copies of 
 the address, before the meeting separates, in order that it may be cir- 
 culated to the greatest possible extent. Lord Staidey's bill, instead of 
 meeting with fair argument, was met by the greatest misrepresenta- 
 tion ; so gross, in fact, as to mislead many. He here alluded to the 
 miserable falling off in the Ulster Association, which had dwindled 
 down to eighty-five, and even these eighty-five disagreed in opinion, 
 and were, at last, represented by five, who, it might be said, were now 
 the Ulster Association. Not only opposition to Lord Stanley's bill 
 had decreased, but the supporters of it had greatly increased. The 
 requisition for the present meeting was signed by 1605 persons — and of 
 what class were these ? There were 41 Peers and Noblemen, 14 Rt. 
 Hon. and Honourables, 18 Baronets, 32 Members of Parliament, II 
 High Sheriffs, 6 Lord Lieutenants of counties, 98 Deputy Lieutenants, 
 355 Magistrates, 257 Clergymen of the Established Church, 45 Pres- 
 byterian Ministers, 28 of that influential body, the Methodists, and 23 
 Barristers. (Cries of " How many Priests ?") These requisitionists 
 consist of men of all parties, and several Whigs, I am happy to say, 
 have signed the requisition. If \he measure were so destructive, would 
 the Ulster Association have decreased, and the numbers in favour of 
 the bill be now 1605 ? And I appeal confidently to the state of feeling 
 as a proof of what I say. But, unfortunately, it has been opposed by 
 government, and, to advance its ends, government resorted to the meet- 
 ing in Dublin. Now, I beg of you to contrast their meeting and ours 
 — (cries of " Comparisons are odious'') and there could be no better 
 test of the influence and wealth of each. And first, select the Sheiiffs. 
 They (the Repealers) had three. The North had eleven Sherifi's in 
 support of Stanley's bill. (Cheers.) They had for them but 290 Justices 
 
80 
 
 of the Peace, and tho North alone has 355 out of 3,003, the whole 
 number in Ireland. Another test is afforded. Out of the entire 
 Established Church, 24 Clergymen signed for them. In Ulster alone 
 257 Clergymen signed our requisition. (Cheers.) The dissenters 
 agree with us; they had but two Presbyterian vclei'gymen, and even 
 they did not belong to the General Assembly. Apheers.) We have 45 
 Presbyterian clergymen. They had not a single Methodist — (immense 
 cheers) — we have 26 — (great cheers) — and of Priests they hadonly 76. 
 We rejoice that they courted the discussion, and they have been sig- 
 nally overthrown. I, too, as well as Mr. Dunbar, read the speeches 
 made at the Dublin meeting, and I think any man reading them must 
 become a convert to the bill. Mr. Bates here read a part of Henry 
 Grattan's speech, as a specimen of absurdity and nonsense, and begged the 
 pardon of the meeting for mentioning his unfortunate name. (Groans 
 for Grattan.) He concluded an excellent speech, by expressing his 
 trust, that the same spirit that assembled them, would send forward 
 names to the address, the resolution for the adoption of which he now 
 seconded. (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The following is a copy of the petition alluded to : — 
 
 To the Honorable the Commons of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ire- 
 land in Parliament assembled. 
 The Petition of the undersigned Nobility, Clergy, Gentry, Merchants, and Yeo- 
 manry of Down, Antrim, and the contiguous northern counties, in the kingdom 
 of Ireland, adopted at a public meeting, convened for the especial consideration 
 of the subject — 
 
 HuMBr.r Sheweth — That Petitioners feel deeply cons'inccd that the present state 
 of the law for the registration of Electors in Ireland, is confessedly ineffectual for 
 the discrimination and enrolment of a duly qualified constituency, as defined and 
 intended in the Reform Act of 1832, while it holds out the most dangerous temp- 
 tations to the advancement and support of fictitious claims to the franchise, by means 
 of perjury and fraud. 
 
 That Petitioners, having seen a Bill introduced into your Honourable House, 
 during last Session of Parliament, by Lord Stanley, Lord Granville Somerset, and 
 Mr. James Emerson Tennent, which appeared to them so founded on principles of 
 constitutional justice, and to embody such equitable provisions as, if passed into a 
 law, Petitioners believe would be found sufficient for discriminating between ficti- 
 tious and well-founded claims, and for securing a bona fide constituency, and put- 
 ting an end to the demoralizing practices which have prevailed at the Registering 
 Sesaions during the last eight years in Ireland. 
 
 That Petitioners distinctly disavow any desire qf abridging the elective franchise, 
 as conferred by the Reform Bill of 1832 ; but, on the contrary merely desire such 
 amendments as would frustrate the frauds, and put an end to the perjuries by which 
 it is eluded or counteracted, and efficiently carry out its intentions and provisions. 
 Petitioners, therefore, trust that your Honourable House will be pleased to sanc- 
 tion the introduction of a similar Bill to that introduced as aforesaid by Lord Stan- 
 ley during the last Session of Parliament, and pass the same into a law. And Pe- 
 titioners as in duty bound, will ever pray. 
 
 Rev. Dr. Stevpart of Brouglishane, then rose and said — My Lord, my 
 excellent friend Mr. Davison has stated that we are, in the opinion and hy 
 the confession of our opponents, like a chain cable, while they are hut a ropn 
 of sand. In this there is certainly much to please and delight us, yet to mn 
 there is a very con8ideraI)le inconvenience. Our opponents having as man/ 
 opinions as there are members, have a vast variety of matter for discus- 
 sion. It has been stated that the eighty-five members of the Constitu- 
 tional Association have eighty-five different opinions upon the subject ol 
 the franchise ; but in our unanimity there is comparative poverty. We 
 are so fully agreed upon the subject that has brought us togi^ther, that it 
 
81 
 
 exceedingly diflicult to find scarcity of observations, or to avoid a tedious 
 repetition of the statements which liave been aheady made. (Hear and 
 cheers.) I shall begin, my Lord, by begging leave to defend myself 
 against some imputations which, from past experience, I know will be 
 brought against me. I know it will be urged against me, in common 
 with my clerical brethren here, that we are out of our proper place in 
 such meetings as th<i present. Thai we have forsaken the Gospel for the 
 study of politics, and in place of preaching and promoting peace, we are 
 labouring to stir up animosity and strife. Now, my lord, I will not plead 
 the exaiTiple of the party to defend myself against it; though, this I 
 could most easily and successfully do. It has been most correctly stated 
 already, that we are only on the defensive, and that our opponents are 
 the aggressors. It was upon a former occasion, their meeting against 
 Lord Stanley's bill, that gave origin to ours in support of it, and had it 
 not been for the inauspicious visit of the Arch Agitator, wo should not 
 have been assembled here this day. I will not, however, my Lord, satisfy 
 myself with the " argumeyitum ad hominemy' or because I can show that 
 there is a large beam in ray a:;cuser's eye, rest contented under the impu- 
 tation that there is a mote in my own. I submit, my Lord, to this most 
 respectable and influential meeting, and to the public at large, that there are 
 two departments in politics. In the one, no minister of the Gospel ought 
 ever to be found, and in the other, it may be his boundeu duty, on many 
 occasions, to take even a proniinei.t part. There is, in the first place, the 
 department of the demagogue, where, from the altar or the pulpit, the 
 street or the platform, the passions, feelings, and prejudices of the ig- 
 norant and excitable multitude are maddened and inflamed — where, with 
 the art and tact with which education, eloquence, and the habit of public 
 speaking usually invest the orator, the speaker magnifies and dwells upon 
 abstract or imaginary rights, and exaggerates supposed or constructive 
 grievances, — interposing exhortatiims to peace and forbearance, as \'ulcan 
 sorinkles water on his furnace, that the flame may not blaze forth and 
 waste itself uselessly, but be internally condensed; — where the portion 
 of the community placed lowest in the arrangement of Divine Providence, 
 is artfully taught to consider itself exclusively the people; — vvher« 
 rule and government are alleged to belong to the populace, whom God, 
 by the position in which he has placed them, shows that he intended to 
 be ruled and governed — just, my Lord, as though it would improve ihe 
 art of navigation to transfer the helm or rudder from the stern to the stem 
 of the vessel; — where, I say, by such artful pnd plausible misrepresenta- 
 tions as these the working classes are seduced from their industry and in- 
 flated with a vain, delusive, and unprofitable ambition, no minister of the 
 Gospel — because no good man of any profession — ought 3vor to appear 
 or take a part. But, on the other hand, as a minister of the Gospel, in 
 becoming a clergyman does not enter into a cloister, or cease to be a 
 citizen, as he still remains a member of the civil community, and has 
 some, though it may be a small stake in the public hedge, he has a right, 
 nay it is his duty upon any emergency affi'Cting the peace, stability, or 
 welfare of the state, rationally and calmly to deliberate and consult wiih 
 intelligent and rational men upon the plans and measures most proper to 
 be adopted. (Hear, hear.) This, my Lord, I maintain is upon all occa- 
 sions the case, but where truth, religion, religious liberty, and the glory 
 of God, are, as on the present occasion, ti.e interests in peril or in ques- 
 
 L 
 
82 
 
 tictn, tlie minister of the Gospel would be a Ju<las to In'tray, or a Peter 
 to deny, Iiis Lord and Master, wore lie to permit false delicacy to pre- 
 vent iiim from taking a post. (Ilenr, litar, and cheers.) In the second 
 place, I protest agaiiiBt the imputation, that, because I am hostile to the 
 errors of Popery and take every opportunity to expose and refute them, 
 I am an enemy to my Roman Catholic fellow suhjects. Against tiiis im- 
 putation, I, in common with your Lordship, endeavoured at a former 
 meeting to defend or guard myself, and I have somewhere since seen upon 
 that defence, the ohservation, that the distinction between Roman Catho- 
 lics and Popery v/as hypocritical, absurd, and insulting to lioman Catho- 
 lic?, while the question was triumphantly asked, how can we separate 
 between a man's errors and himself, so as to hato the one and love tho 
 other? (Hear, hear.) How is it possible to hato Popery and yet love 
 Papists? (Cheers.) I positively do not recollect wlio wfis the philosopher 
 and logician who made these observations. I do not know who was the 
 Philanthropist and apostle of peace and truth, who thus exerted himself 
 to expose to the infuiiated personal hostility of Romanists, every j)ersori 
 who exposed the errors of the Romish system — [here several persons 
 called out, it was Dr. Montgomery] — well if it was Dr. Montgomery, 
 I am sorry f ' r it — (hear, hear) — he is a man whose intelligence and talents 
 I Imvo ever admired, and I fearlessly assert that the author of the above 
 observations is to be pitied either in his understanding or honesty. (Hoar, 
 hear.) '' We cannot" says he, " separate between a man's errors and 
 himself, so as to hate and correct the one and yet love the other !" Why 
 can wo not make this separation ? Can we not love and wish to save 
 the soul of a thief or of even a murderer, while we detest both the theft 
 and murder ? (Hear, and cheers.) Is it not possible to hate idola- 
 try, even with a perfect hatred, and yet love and pity the unfortunate 
 dupes who are under its influence ? Did not our blessed Loru, while 
 Uiey were euemic s and sinners, so love mankind, as to die for their sakes; 
 and will it therefore be alleged, that because he loved them, he must 
 have loved their enmity and their sins ? (Hear.) Will tho author of the 
 above observations follow uj) his princij)les in the case of our Loid, or 
 can he do so without blasphemy ? (Great cheering.) If ho believed the 
 observations when he made them, I do most sincerely pity his ignorance; 
 and, if he made lliem ad captandum, to serve a purjiose to oppose tho 
 enemies of Popish err(n- to the personal liostility of Roman Catholics, 
 and fortify the minds of the dupes of error against the ingress of the sim- 
 ]>licity of Divine truth, I pity his want of good taste and good feeling. — 
 (Great cheering.) It is because we love Roman Catholics — because we 
 esteem their generosity, patience, cheerfulness, and numerous amiable 
 features of character — because we see that they have a zeal of God, but 
 not according to knowledge — because, they are building the house of 
 eternal hope, with wood, liny, and stubble — that we labour for their en- 
 lightenment and conversion. And it is because we believe that while 
 wilder the inflnence of error and delusion their ascendancy would be 
 ruinous to Protestants, and injurious to themselves, that we oppose 
 their advancement to power. In the next place, I protest against the 
 imputation that I am here this day as an enemy to civil or religious 
 ril)erfy. I am here this day as the opponent of Popish ascendancy 
 which is, unquestionably, the ultimate object of the Arch- Agitator in 
 his Repeal and other movements, and Popery and liberty are the most 
 
83 
 
 po'fect incoir<palil)los in nature — they arc the antipodes of each otiiov. — 
 (Hear, hoar, and ciieers,) Fopcry comuiosiccd its career in unurpalion, 
 and tyranny over (jod's heritage and househoUl, and it rapidly advanced 
 its unhallowed claims to domination over tlio persons and properties ot 
 men. Popery will not permit slaves and suhjects to think, speak, or act, 
 except as it pleases to dictate. Witness the Inquisition and its inhuman 
 acts. Yoit inigiit, therefore, as well expect to unite together fire and 
 water, light and darkness, as Popery and liberty. (Cheering) Projected 
 usurpation and intended tyranny have ever cmj„loyed the catch-word 
 liberty to decoy their dupes and accomplish their purposes; and cccord- 
 iii'^ly the grand leader in the Popish ascendancy scheme now too kuc= 
 cessfully dupes the soft and easy Protestant Liberals with fairy and fas- 
 '.inatiiig j)romise8 and prospects of liberty. But as we find, in the whole 
 history of antiquity, that the demagogue who most flattered the populace, 
 and made tlie most zealous display of zeal for public liberty, was the in- 
 tending and approaching tyrant — so in the present case^ let but the soi' 
 discmt Liberator and his stalT, tiic Romish priests, have an opportunity 
 to accomplish their o^-ject — let them get quit of Protestant bonds and 
 Protestant obstacles, antl if they i\o not say to their dupes, as llehoboam 
 did to the nation of Israel, " Your yoke was iioavy, but we will add to 
 your yoke."^ |Protestant ascendancy chastised you with whips, but we 
 will chastise you with scorpions. They will belie their pai'entage,.an<l 
 i'emonstrate, in the face of her own pretensions, that Popery is neither 
 infallible nor unchangeable, (Cheers.) For these statements, the truth 
 of which no sane man, unblinded by prejudice, can for a moment ques- 
 tion, I shall, no doubt, be favoured by the Dictator, with the classical 
 epithets of •' beast" and " brute." These are names with which, as my 
 respected friend, Sir R, Bateson, has told you, he on a former occasion 
 honoured iv.o, and I am exceedingly obliged to Sir Robert for defending 
 me when I had no opportunity of defending myself. (Hear and cheers.) 
 As these names aro words from the vocabulary of Dan's usual society, I 
 will not say of some of his late entertainers in this town, I sliould have 
 considered them of no niore consequence than had I heard them repeated 
 in passing through Dilliugsgato, were it not that in passing throuiji the 
 lips of Dan they have derived an adventitious importance, (cheers.) 
 As a geneial rule, the reverse of what this man publicly states is ahvay^ 
 the truth. (Hear.) To illustrate this fully I should bo obliged to trouble 
 you with tlie whole history of Dan's public life, take however, the follow- 
 ing late samples, in the same breath, nearly in the same sentence, he 
 publicly and unblushingly declared that he read a certain letter three times 
 and that he only read tlie first three lines till he threw it into the fire. 
 (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) He publicly promised to come bohlly 
 into Belfast on a iVIonday, and he cowardly and privately skulked into it 
 on the Saturday evening before. (Loud cheers.) When, therefore, as 
 one of his opponents, he calls me brute and beast, it follows that he is 
 speaking of and describing his own friends, and that I am toto C(vlo re- 
 moved from sucli creatures. (Loud cheers.) The history of Popery, in 
 its extinction of Protestantism in Spain and Italy, its fiend-like persecution 
 of it in France, down, wherever it has opportunity, even to the piesent 
 day. (Cheers.) Its cruelty towards it in (.jreat, Britain and Ireland, until 
 iis cldws were cut and its fangs jiulled out. ( Loud cheers.) The tyraniiy 
 4!xercised by Dan. and his staff, the liomidi priests, over Raphael, oi 
 
84 
 
 LotidoH, Puicel), of Dublin, and Sharman, my jt'vvel of Down, and every 
 man wlie has ever dared to breathe dissent from their dictation, demon- 
 strate that Satan would be jiis^ as tolerant of holy-water in Pandemonium, 
 as Popery in the ascendant would be of liberty. (Hear, hear.) I'or the 
 sake of liberty then, for the sake of Roman Catiiolics themselves, I stand 
 here this day to contribute my humble mite to prevent Popish ascen- 
 dancy in this country. (Hear, iiear, and loud cheers.) 4th. I shall fur- 
 ther protest against the imputation that I am here to-day as the enemy 
 to the equitable extension of the elective franchise. (Hear, hear,) It is 
 Dan's constant or reiterated complaint, tiiat the numbers of electors and 
 members of parliament for Ireland is not equal, in proportion to the po- 
 pulation to the number in Great Britain ; but he never even glances at 
 the cause. The mass of the population in the two islands is of a very 
 different character and description. In Great Britain the people are 
 tauoht to tliink and rest upon personal responsibility ; In Ireland they 
 dare not think, except as directed by an Italian Church, and they rest 
 upon the ghostly responsibility of tlie priest. (Cheers.) In Great Britain 
 the uopulation are trained up in piety, industry, and economy; In Ireland 
 they are trained up in superstition, idleness, and extravagance. Let, then 
 Dan, and their reverences, liis staff, relax their spiritual tyranny, abolish 
 their numerous holy, or rather idle, days ; let them teacii the people to 
 think, to be industrious and economical ; let them civilize and bring the 
 population to a moral level with the population of Great Britain, and then 
 the demand of equality will bo morij like justice for Ireland. (Cheers.) 
 Besides, are not the provisions of my Lord Stanley's Bill intended and 
 calculated to apply to all classes in the community — to Protestants and 
 Panists, Conservatives and Liberals ? Why, then, should its provisions be 
 considered so grevious to one party ? Are not Dan's party Ireland ? 
 And docs not justice to Ireland, in his mouth, mean favour to his party ? 
 If then, they be a party so powerful and important, why are they not able 
 to cope with their weaker and more insignificant opponents, upon equal 
 terms? Let not Daniel say that his party, though numerous, are poor 
 ;tnJ ignorant, for this is the error of himself and his staff. Ulster while 
 Popish, was the most turbulent, sanguinary, and wretched province in 
 Jieland ; and now, except where a number of Dan's " fine pisantry" are 
 I'jcated together, it scarcely yields to Great Britain in civilization, pros- 
 perity and comfort. (Hear hear.) Let, then Dan become a real liberator. 
 Let him oveithrow priestly domination, and introduce civilization. Let 
 him make the country safe for Scotch and English capital, and then he 
 will no longer have cause to complain of his party's poverty. (Cheers.) 
 I submit, my Lord, that, were I pleading against the extension of the 
 elective franchise to poor Roman Catholics, which I am not, I would not 
 be arguing against its equitable extension. (Hear.) There is a manifest 
 difference between Roman Catholic and Protestant electors. When the 
 State confers the franchise upon a Protestant, poor or rich, it creates an 
 elector, but when it gives it to a Roman Catholic, it only confers another 
 vote upon the priest. (Cheers.) The question of a £5 qualification in 
 place of a £10 qualification would not, therefore, be, in the case of Roman 
 Catholics, shall a number of poor householders have votes, but shall the 
 priest liavc a number of additional votes? (Loud cheers.) He can 
 already command 200. Will you raise him to 300 or 400 ? The Roman- 
 ist elector is a cypher, and the priest the significant figure. In himself 
 
85 
 
 he is notl)ing ; but place liim on t!ie liglit side of liis ghostly confossor, 
 and he will swell his roverence's importance. (Renewed cheers.) Nor 
 will the priest permit Iiini to act otherwise. He who keeps his con^icience 
 must also keep his vote; and should lie sliew himself refractory, he would 
 he excommunicated in time and eternity. Hear, hear, and cheers,) 
 Such my Lord, is the liberty which Romanists at jnesent enjoy — the 
 liberty of obeying their priests' commands. Such is the liberty to a 
 share of which they invito Protestants, when they shall have obtained 
 a Repeal of the tJnion, and a Popish Parliament in College Green. 
 And it is, my Lord, because I have no taste for such liberty, that 
 I appear here this day. (Great cheering.) When I last had the ho- 
 nour of addressing your Lordship, 1 stated, that, according [to the doc- 
 trines of Paper}', oaths made against the interests of the church, and of 
 which interest the church itself was the only judge, were not oaths but 
 peijuries, and that, of course, it would be sinful not to violate, bat to keep 
 them. For this and a collateral statement, I was previously called to 
 account by two priests. One of them peremptorily demanded my au- 
 thorities for such a statement, foretelling, at the same time, that as I could 
 not join them, I must be branded as a calumniator and a liar; I, however, 
 gave him authorities for much more on the subject than I had asserted 
 in the Music Hall; he replied and admitted the fact, by asserting, that 
 the churches of England and Scotland held the same doctrines; I rejoined, 
 and following him in his sophistical wanderings, exposed Auricular con- 
 fession and extreme Unction in such terras, as, I believe, led him to think 
 he had caught a Tartar. He therefore divided his reply to my rejoin- 
 der into three parts, two of which, with rigmarole statements, 100 miles 
 from the subject, slowly appeared, but the third appears to have gone to 
 keep company with Dan's moral courage. 1 have proved my position 
 through the press, and I now throw down the gauntlet to all the priests 
 in Ireland, to prove it on the platform. I will meet them one to one, two 
 to two, or three to three, as they please. (Loud cheers.) I now, my 
 Lord, conclude by moving the resolution. 
 
 " Tliat the Petition now read be adopted, and that the presentation of it be entrus- 
 ted to Lord Stanley." 
 
 Thomas Batt, Esq., Belfast, seconded the resolution, wliich passed 
 unanimously. 
 
 Doctor Cooke theri came foi'ward, and was received with deafening' 
 clieers, and several rounds of Kentish fire. He said, my lords and 
 gentlemen, I have now in mj hands one of the most important records, 
 and, of course, one of the most veracious statements that has ever been 
 exhibited to a Belfast audience. (Hear, hear.) The record to which 
 I allude is taken from undoubted authority — that from which none 
 of us can be supposed to dissent. It is from no less an authority than 
 the Belfast Vindicator. (Laughter and groans.) This record is 
 worthy of preservation, and my anxiety for its safe keeping was such, 
 that, in coming to the meeting, and in dread of its irreparable loss, I 
 actually carried it thus — placing it next my heart. (Hear, hear.) It 
 is deeply to be regretted that so invaluable a production should re- 
 main confined to oil and lamp-black. But if the Repealers be the great- 
 ful men I take them to be, they will speedily have it printed in letters 
 of gold, framed iu the most exquisite manner, and handed down in their 
 
86 
 
 wills to their posterity, as one of the most A'aluahle and truthful. de- 
 scriptions of the greatest event that ever occui'rcd in Ulster. (Laugh- 
 ter, and great cheering, that continued for several minutes.) Lend 
 me your ears. (Laughter.) We may presume that haif-a-dozen of 
 gentlemen, with coats as black as my own, had lent their joint-stock 
 assistance in preparing this document. And if I may be allowed to 
 make as free with my own name as our great visitant has done ; and 
 if, after his illustrious example, 1 may ascend to that sublime depart- 
 ment of oratory called a pun, I should say that those congregated black 
 coats clubbed all their Avits in concocting this invaluable dish. And, 
 in my mind's eye, I can see the fire rolling beneath, and as the several 
 ingredients descended into the cauldron. (Loud cheeringl) I can see 
 them dance, and hear them sing around it, like the v/eird sisters on the 
 moor — " Double, double, toil and trouble ; fire burn and cauldron 
 bubble." (Cheers.) And as each tosses in his " foot of newt," or " toe 
 of frog." I can fancy a curl from Daniel's official wig descending into 
 the foaming vessel to make the broth complete. (Laughter and cheers.) 
 But hear the document — it is Avorthy of attention : — " O'Connell in 
 Ulster — Words are too weak to express our joy, our exultation, our 
 triumph, in tne success of O'Connell's visit to the North." (Ironical 
 cheers.) Why do you not believe them ? I tell you, they are worthy 
 of all credit. " Words" wore actually " too weak," and therefore it was 
 they had recourse to sighs and tears, the only language of such a joy 
 as theirs, the brief history of which lies in one brief sentence — He 
 lied himself into the town, and his friends swore him out of it (Vehement 
 cheering.) Be silent, I entreat you, for not a word should be lost. — 
 1 shall do my best to read it well, and so well, that, at the next elec- 
 tion of professor of elocution in the College, I o xpect — though in that 
 quarter my interest be rather Aveak — that I shall carry the election 
 against every competitor, and be unanimously installed in that impor- 
 tant office. (Loud laughter and cheers.) And certainly the docu- 
 ment deserves the best of reading, for, beyond all doubt, it is either 
 the most sublime or the most ridiculous of all Avriting; and the most true, 
 or the most false of all history. (Cheers.) " Never since Ulster Avas 
 Ulster," proceeds the Vindicator, " Never since Ulster Avas Ulster" — 
 and I belicA'C that's a long Avhile- — (laughter) — " did she Avitncss any 
 demonstration approaching in importance the least of the three that 
 has honoured his arrival amongst us." (Laughter.) Don't laugh ; it is 
 every word true, and I'll prove it. Yes, these demonstrations prove, 
 to their hearts' content, the vanity and the folly of the men that called 
 him hither. (Hear.) They prove the vanity and the folly of the man 
 that obeyed their call ; and they have demonstrated to the three king- 
 doms, that, whatever his influence might be in the South, his name is 
 an utter abomination to the freemen of the North. (Loud cheers.) — 
 "The Reform dinner," proceeds the Vindicator, " when the number, 
 the respectability — (laughter) — the enthusiasm and all the accompany- 
 ing circumstances are considered — forms an era, even in the life of 
 O'Connell." (Laughter.) Why Avill you not believe it ? Again I 
 undertake to demonstrate its absolute accuracy. There is no doubt, 
 in this extract, a pretty considerable spice of Avhat I have elsewhere 
 attributed to Mr. O'Connell, " a genteel talent for invention" — a choice 
 expression Avhich, after much research in the beat authorities, I have 
 
87 
 
 employed, as it easts out an offensive and very vulgar word, and con- 
 verts a source of blarne into an occasion of praise. (L;vuglitcr.) Tha 
 Vindico.tor declares^ *' tliat the three glorious days" of Belfast " forms 
 an era even in the life of O'Connell." (Hear.) 1 know your blinded 
 incredulity may lead you to say — not that this out-herods Herod, but 
 that out-daniels Dan. (Great laughter and cheers.) The thing is 
 true, nevertheless ; and as the Mahomedan era was dated from the 
 Hegira, or flight of Mahomet from^Mecca, so shall the Daniel ian^^era be 
 henceforth dated from the flight from Belfast, and future chroniclers 
 shall write it thus — Anno Hegirce Belfastiensis I. (Cheers. j I shall, 
 however, just treat you to " the least taste in the world" more of these 
 " elegant extracts," from this paragon model of truth and accuracy. — 
 The article proceeds to say " The Repeal meeting was every way 
 worthy to stand beside it," that is, I presume, " beside the dinner." — 
 Now did not he who penned that passage find his goose quill swell 
 within liis fingers, till it were transmuted as into the baton of Wel- 
 lington — (laughter) — and ready to point the way to as terrible a ehaigc 
 upon Ulster, as when the hero pointed to the columns of France with 
 " Up guards, and at them." (Great laughter and cheers.) I beseech 
 you do not laugh — the eloquence of the Vindicator is really no laugh- 
 ing-stock, as the next extract will show : " In Belfast" — mark you, in 
 Belfast — " no place could be found, not even the immense Pavilion 
 erected for the dinner, and which, after the removal of the tables, was 
 capable of accommodating G,000 persons — which could contain a fifth 
 of the assembled Repealers. "J'hey were furced to adjourn from the 
 largest building in the capital of Ulster to the open air." This im- 
 mense Pavilion. (Laughter.) Immense Pavilion. (Great laughter 
 and groans.) And erected for the occasion too. (Renewed laughter.) 
 Why, I fear, after Daniel's examples, their memories are all fled toge- 
 ther. Do they think we forget when and for what that Pavilion — 
 (laughter) — that shed was erected ? Do they thiuk we forget what 
 sort of animals were formerly exhibited there ? Was it, or was it not, 
 erected some years ago, for the exhibition, either of a m.enagerie, or a 
 succession of lov>' comedies, pantomimes, and farces ? (Continued 
 cheering ) Did the Repealers not find it like an old pair of cast-off 
 boots, which by vampiug, toeing, heel-tapping", and sparrow-bills, may 
 be coaxed to v;ear a fortnight longer ? (Hear, hear, and laughter.) — - 
 Was not the street encumbered with uprights and props to ensure for 
 a few hours its miserable and rickety existence. ( Cheers and laugh- 
 ter.) Yes, they exhibited King Daniel v»-here the kings of shreds and 
 patches were wont to fret their little hour, but whei'e he and his enter- 
 tainers fretted a great one. (Long-continued cheering.) I believe 
 folks, still less majestical, have also figured in the same place ; and, 
 perchance, those dignified characters, " Punch and Judy," have been 
 exhibited in the same locality to not less dignified spectators.* (Hear, 
 
 [• Tliis history of the ravilion is correct, so far as it goes, hut a defect has to be 
 .^ckIlowledgcd. The origin and design of the Pavihon \vas as described : but another 
 old shed, erected for purposes of similar histrionic dignity, and tliat hail long stood 
 the weather in Smitlijicht inarhet-placc, was broiiglit to eke and patch its brother slied, 
 in Cliichester-street. Tlic Pavilion, therefore, w:\^" erected fir (he occuaidn,'' when 
 the one old slied was taken down, and .'ituck to the side of the other old shed tliat 
 «tood.] 
 
aiul laughter.) I do trust the Vindicator ■will send tlie props to the 
 Museum, and that the singular service they have done in holding up 
 the " immense Pavilion," will be recorded in their archives, in perpe- 
 iiiani rei memoriam. (Cheers and laughter.) But that most faithful 
 chronicler of the times, the veracious Vindicator, tells us, that the 
 " Pavilion" — (laughter) — could contain 6,000, and that for want of 
 room the Repealers were forced to adjourn to the open air. Now, 
 whether it might not contain 6,000, as herrings He in a barrel, I will not 
 say ; but that it would not contain 3,000 standing, I will undertake 
 geometrically to demonstrate, and that, at the time of adjournment, 
 there was vacant room for 500 persons, I will undertake by eye-wit- 
 nesses to prove. (Hear, hear.) Why then did the Repealers adjourn? 
 I'll let you into that secret. Besides their " genteel talent for inven- 
 tion," the Repealers have a nice capacity for the ing-enious art of 
 money-catching. (Laughter.) Ay, Daniel's the boy for that. (Roars 
 of laughter.) Accordingly, when they invited " Protestants, Presby- 
 terians, and Dissenters," to the Repeal meeting, they first invited them 
 to pay for every man, woman, and child, sixpence or a shilling. (One 
 voice, 2s. 6d., another Is.) Well, be that as it may, the value of the 
 sight vibrated from a shilling to half-a-crown. (Hear.) Now, the 
 sage managers of the Pavilion farce well knew the Protestants had the 
 money — (hear, hear, and cheers) — and though sound enemies to heresy, 
 to a little heretical cash, they had no insuperable objection. (Hear, 
 hear, and cheers.) But when they had got the Protestants into the 
 trap, they determined to test their numbers by introducing a green 
 flag, affectedly the emblem of Ireland, but perennially the symbol and 
 stimulant of rebellion. (Loud cheers.) And when they cried " hats 
 off" to the idol, while a part of the audience readily obeyed the sum- 
 mons, another, and a large part, paid the idol uo respect. (Cheers ) 
 The Irish descendants of the blue-bonneted Scots stood covered to a 
 man — (cheers) — and when the priests and potentates of the old, origi- 
 nal, new Pavilion — (cheers and laughter) — found, by this test, they 
 were in danger of being out-numbered, then was the green flag smug- 
 gled aAvay to Kern's Hotel, and followed by the adjournment. (Hear.) 
 And it is welj, my lord and gentlemen, that strangers to Ireland should 
 know the real meaning of the green flag, by the interpretation of Mr. 
 O'Connell himself. He has not forgot either the time or place, 
 when, in the midst of his own shouts, it was explained in the memor- 
 able stanza — 
 
 " We tread the land that bore us, 
 The green flag waving o'er us ; 
 The friend we've tried 
 Is by our side, 
 Arid the foe we hate before us," — (Cheers.) 
 
 Yes, there's the true meaning of the emblem of Repeal, by which 
 they tested the minds of the Pavilion audience. (Hear, hear, hear.) 
 And when they found they had " caught such Tartars," they adjourned 
 them to the open air, having first honestly cheated them out of their 
 money. (Laughter.) And this was a wise manoeuvre, for had they 
 remained in Rickety Hall, the Repeal, bfyond all question, would have 
 met an overwhelming negative. (Cheers.) It was under this well- 
 founded dread, and not for any want of room, that the adjournment was a 
 
89 
 
 rorced march ; and, no doubt, in tlic open air, Mr. O'Conaell thought, 
 that with proper management he might still achieve a victory over the 
 North. (Cheers.) Yes, and let the press tell it — when, what he calls 
 *' the honest Northern shout" made the welkin ring, a shout which, with 
 such exquisite taste, he vows he loves so dearly — and who his word 
 will doubt ? — (laughter and cheers) — yes, when that honest, well-loved 
 shout arose, Mr. O'Connell's words to the myrmidons around him 
 Avere, " I pause, my good fellows, till you shout them down." And a 
 shout they did raise, both loud and long. But when they had expended 
 the last puff of their most sweet breath, still nigh at hand arose a louder 
 shout, imposing upon Mr. O'Connell the Protestant penance of silence. 
 (Cheers.) Again his followers tried their lungs, and strained their 
 throats, until, as is suspected, it will require the entire amount of the 
 pavilion cheatery money to purchase gargles. (Cheers and loud laugh- 
 ter.) IJut all in vain was the effort. For still as the voice of Repeal 
 became silent, the voice of the North arose, and 
 
 Again, again again, 
 And the battle did not slack, 
 Till a feebler cry, Repeal, 
 To our cheering sent us back. 
 
 (Cheers and laughter.) It was under these circumstances Mr. O'Con- 
 nell was forced to speak in pantomime and dumb show — a speech that 
 has been printed, and may have been uttered, but which certainly 
 never was heard — (cheers) — and which it had been wise in INIr. O'Con- 
 nell had he never attempted in Ulster. But he has received a lesson 
 he will never forget. He has looked in the faces of the men he threat- 
 ened to drive into the sea with " kail stocks." In vain has he tried 
 either to bully them or to blarney them ; the one attempt they do not 
 much dread, the other they most heartily despise. (Cheers.) And 
 here, my Lord, I feel compelled to notice the only part of the subject 
 that furnishes any cause of regret, unless the coming of Mr. O'Connell, 
 the real cause of every evil that follows in his train. Unhappily, during 
 his sojourn in Belfast, a few windov.s were broken — the breakers, very 
 properly — so far as in such a case the word properly can be applied — 
 the breakers, I say, very properly dividing their favours between Pro- 
 testants and Roman Catholics.* (Hear.) That any man's window 
 
 * The Ulster Times, in referrinjt to the window -brcalting by the O'Connell mob, 
 observes : — " We are led to these reflections, by having had shewn to us the identical 
 brick-bat with which the Vindicator's said gentle protegees, actually struck a Protes- 
 tant female, by projecting it through a window on the second story. But we sup- 
 pose being a Protestant, her windows and her life are matters of minor importarce 
 in the moral code of Peter Dens. Weighed in a patent machine the missile is exactly 
 1 lb. 15oz. ; and is carefully preserved by a gentleman who promises to shew it, if 
 needful, iti Exeter Hall ; and we judge it no bad set o^ against both the ''sling" and 
 the " stone," flung througii the windows of the Music Hall — and which, Mr. Chas. 
 O'Connell affirms, actually drew the blood of one of the " lovely and the good" — and 
 which blood Mr. D. O'Connell did not see. but merely heard of. If the thing were 
 so, we deplore and condemn the actor and the act. But, though little given to spe- 
 culate in curiosities, we do hereby offer one pound sterling, for the discovery of the 
 surgeon who dressed the wound ; with one shilling a drop, for all the blood shed by 
 the " slung stone ;'' and a good half-sovereign, for the adhesive strap and bandage by 
 which the head was dressed ; and we do promise to preserve them in a bottle as care-, 
 fully as the relic of St. Januarius— and, upon every anriversar)- of Daniel's " JReptal 
 
 M 
 
90 
 
 sh-^uld have Ibeen bi^oken is cause of regret ; but that the windows of 
 tvay Uoman Catholic should have been broken is cause of regret still 
 deeper. (Hear, hear.) And I feel bound to give expression to this 
 sentiment in this great Protestant meeting, because I know it Avill 
 meet a response in every true Protestant heart. (Loud cries of hear, 
 hear, and great cheering.) And every gentleman here, and every man 
 who possesses the least portion of influence over the more moveable 
 portion of the community, I would beg leave to remind of that great 
 religious and political truth, that it is in the life of peace, and that 
 alone, that Providence will enable us either to defend ourselves or to 
 conquer our assailants. (Cheers ) I also beseech all to remember, 
 that our religion is not merely a religion of peace, but of long suffer- 
 ing. Therefore, let Mr. O'Counell heap upon us all the ribaldry and 
 abuse he can muster — let him vilify and traduce my friend, Dr. 
 Stewart — let him call me by as many names as his tongue can utter, 
 or his Tforshippers re-echo — it is our part to bear all this and more 
 with patience, to wash it out by forgiveness, and repay it, not with in- 
 jury, but with kindness. (Cheers.) Mr. O'Connell is doing all in his 
 power to stir up and exasperate the Roman Catholics against their 
 Protestant f.dlow-subjects. With one breath he inculcates ingratitude 
 to their landlords — with another he enkindles their hatred to the Pro- 
 testant clergy — with a third he denounces the bloody Orangemen 
 (meaning thereby all Protestants) — while he hugs the gentle and ex- 
 tirpating Ilibbonman — (hear, hear, hear) — aye, to his heart of hearts. 
 (Continued cheers.) But no matter for all this — Protestants may not 
 be provoked to any retaliation. They must live by the Bible that 
 they love. (Hear, hear.) And while they mingle their loyal deter- 
 mination with peaceful conduct, the Pi'ovidence that guarded and 
 guided their fathers will take care of their safety and ensure their suc- 
 cess. (Hear, hear.) But as this unhappy bi'eaking of a few (and I 
 rejoice to say they are but a few) panes of glass, though so equally ap- 
 portioned between Protestant and Roman Catholic, has already, with 
 Mr. O'Connell's usual dexterity, been distorted to calumniate us as a 
 body, and to vilify and expose an individual to vengeance, it becomes 
 necessary to put the public, and especially the English public, into 
 possession of the real origin of this occurrence, which, however trifling 
 in extent, we lament most deeply, not only as wrong' in itself, but as a 
 never failing source of calumny to our great traducer. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 Now, the origin of the whole aftair was this : — When the boys and 
 
 most of them were literally so — found themselves turned out of the 
 " immense pavilion," which they say was expressly erected for the Re- 
 form dinner and the Repeal meeting — (loud laughter) — and transferred 
 to the open street, where certainly they had as good a right to hear 
 gratis as Mr. O'Connell had to speak, they thought — for many of them 
 were descended of the canny Scot, who knows both how to make, and 
 
 Triumph, to cause the desecrated blood to flow afresh as veritably as ever did tlie 
 blood of "old brazen face" at the pious objurgations of the Neapolitan Lazzoroni. 
 
 [The brick-bat is still preserved, with the following inscription : — " \ Dan-Uh 
 antique, (not found iu an Irish bog,) but picked up in a drawing-room in Cromac- 
 street, Belfast — into which it had been projected, (not from the moon) but from the 
 arm of one of the ' finest pisantry in the world.' '"] 
 
Dl 
 
 how to lay out his money — tliey tliought themselves unjustly choused 
 out of their sixpences, shillings, and half-crowns, and therefore crowded 
 to the Vindicator office, where the tickets had hceu hought and sold, 
 demanding- back their money. At the Vindicator office, as I have 
 learned, they Avere referred to the Linen-hall, and at the Linen-hall 
 they were handed to the Vindicator again. Under these circumstances 
 the cold-blooded Northerns became hot, being' provoked at the trickery 
 practised upon them — literally that of obtaining money under ftdse 
 pretences. And then, and there, was the first pane of glass demo- 
 lished. (Hear, hear.) Now, I grant that to any one, but especially 
 to boys, this conduct v/as provoking — because insulting ; and exaspe- 
 rating, because dishonourable and dishonest. (Hear, hear, hear, -and 
 cheers ) Still they should not have allowed their passions to triumph 
 over their better judgment. What they sliould have done Avas this — 
 they should have brought the breakers before my learned and highly 
 respected friend, the Assistant Harristcr. (A laugh.) Every man, 
 every boy that was cheated should have issued a process against the 
 ticket-sellers, and a Belfast lawyer would have shown up their frau- 
 dulent proceedings to a Belfast jury^ Avhose verdict, under the direction 
 of our learned, and truly urbane, and sweet tempered Barrister — 
 (laug'hter) — would have taught them to avoid embarking again in so 
 hazardous an experiment as that of obtaining money on false pretences — 
 and so unprofitable a tirade as that of being decreed for the sum ab- 
 stracted and the expense of prosecution. But, while we have laws, and 
 juries, and Barristers — such " second Daniels come to judgment" — let 
 no man take the law into his own hand. Above all things, let no one, 
 whether old or young, offend Roman Catholics or injure their property. 
 (Hear.) Though their whole house were glass, remember they are 
 your fellow-creatures, and that Ave owe them nothing but love ; and 
 that, hoAvever Ave may oppose, nay abhor, some of their doctrines, Ave 
 are still bound to love them, as Christ Jesus loved us, poor sinners 
 though we be, and misguided though Ave have been, by manifold errors, 
 and polluted in heart and action by many sins. (Loud cries of hear, 
 hear.) Having given this advice, Avhich your cheering of its sentiments 
 has so heartily enforced, my next duty is to turn your attention to the 
 proceedings of our great friend and illustrious visitant. (Laughter.) 
 And, Avhere all is so admirable, I scarce knoAV where to begin — but 1 
 must begin somewhere, and to select the folloAving at random. The 
 admirable reporter of the Vindicator, Avhom I cannot ftiil to compli- 
 ment on the acuteness of his hearing — (a laugh) — has noted as follows : 
 " The Hon Gentleman said, I come here to-day to address you, and I 
 brought Avith me some extracts from the ancient history of the North." 
 NoAV, I am glad to find he has studied history — indeed Daniel is a great 
 historian — an excellent historian — a perfect improvisatore in history, 
 making it Avithout either reading or study, as easily as he recollects 
 the unwritten paragraphs of the Ulster Times. (A laugh.) But, in 
 the present case, he tells us he is draAving from our own modern dates, 
 and favouring us Avith a resolution passed at the great Dungaunon 
 convention, affirming tha.t the claim of any but the King, Lords, and 
 Commons, to govern Ireland, was unconstitutional, illegal, and unjust. 
 But Avhat is the real meaning of the resolutions at Dungannon, con- 
 trasted Avith the avowed pem'ersion of the expositor of Darrynane ? — 
 
(Cheers.) Why, the vohmteers at Dungannon wei'e men who loved 
 their country, but were Protestants to their heart's core, (Hear, heai', 
 and cheers.) They were, consequently, men who feared God and ho- 
 noured the King — (hear, hear) — and who loved the constitutional and 
 imited supremacy of King, Lords, and Commons. But by whom is 
 this piece of ancient modern history adduced to be perverted ? By 
 that servant of all work, who was despatched as a missionary through 
 England and Scotland in open hostility to the House of Lords. — 
 (Cheers.) And did he not undertake that unholy and unconstitutional 
 crusade with all the zeal of one of the followers of Peter the Hermit ? 
 And did he not declaim against the House of Lords with all the tender 
 mercies of a delanda est carthago? And is this the man who dares, 
 and in a Belfast street to boot, to quote and pervert a resolution of the 
 loyal men of Dungannon? Men, with some of whose political views I 
 cannot claim identity, but men, of whose honour, honesty, truth — yes, 
 Daniel, truth — and loyalty, no man ever doubted. (Cheers.) Men, 
 who, had the House of Lords been threatened, not merely by an itine- 
 rant charlatan tickling the masses of the populace into attention to his 
 harangues, that, while that attention was so fixed, he might more 
 easily pick thoir pockets. (Laughter.) Men, who had the House of 
 Lords been threatened by the whole influence qf the Crown, betrayed 
 by an enslaved and besotted Ministry, would have rallied around them 
 in all the panoply of principle, and, if need had been, would have warded 
 off the " heavy blow" from their best protectors at the point of the 
 bayonet, and with the thunders of their cannon. (Loud cheers.) Yes, 
 these are the men whose resolutions Mr. O'Connell dares to quote, and 
 labours to pervert ; but, however his authorities may impose in the 
 South, we are too far North to take them on his shewing. (Hear, 
 hear.) I shall give you just one specimen of Mr. O'Connell's vaunted 
 crusade against the House of Lords. He had marched through Eng- 
 land to the tune of the Radical and Chartist pipes, and invaded Scot- 
 land as great as another Edward hurrying to Bannockburn. (Cheers.) 
 But just as he found in Ulster, so he found in Scotland — " a new cli- 
 mate." But not the climate of the frost, or the mountain mist, but the 
 climate where he still shivers and hugs his mantle tighter — (a laugh) — 
 the climate of the intellect — (cheers) — the climate of the Bible readers 
 — (cheers) — -the climate of the men that listen and think, and judge 
 before they shout. (Cheers.) Yes, truth it is, that even a Scotch 
 Radical is a thinker, whose mental vision, though for a time impeded 
 and pervei'ted, seldom goes far astray, and generally soon returns to 
 its healthy functions. (Hear, hear.) Agcordingly, he marched through 
 Scotland, with silence for his almost constant, though unwelcome com- 
 panion. At Glasgow, nothing but Conservative forbearance protected 
 him from a bath in the pure streams of the sweetly flowing Molindinar ! 
 Arrived at Paisley, he had learned some wisdom fx*om experience, and 
 I have it from an eye-witness, when he stood up to address the steady 
 and the silent crowd, he looked the very image of Client Dishonesty 
 consulting Counsellor Duplicity — both thoroughly convinced of the 
 badness of their cause, yet searching for any shift, or plea, or evidence, 
 by which it might be sustained. (Loud cheers.) Well, at last, like a 
 cowardly horse, the spur and the lash of necessity compelled him to 
 take the fence. (Laughter.) " M'.'U of Paisley," he exclaimed, " what 
 
.93 
 
 ai*e we to do iu oui* pi'esent circumstauces? (Deep Scotch attention.) 
 I'll tell you what we must do — we must aunihilate the House of Lords. 
 (An exjjected cheer, hut no cheei' came — continued Scotch attention 
 listening for ivhat woxdd come next.) For what are the House of 
 Lords ? A number of old women — yes, of old women up in London ; 
 and, if old women in London, with petticoats on them, are permitted 
 to govern the nation, why may we not as well appoint the young ladies 
 of Paisley (and I suppose he pronounced them " the lovely and the 
 good") — (a laugh) — to govern the nation in Scotland ?" At this effu- 
 sion of wit, patriotism, and truth, a sta-id and elderly Paisley weaver — 
 one of the tasteful cultivators of carnations — quietly observed to his 
 neighbour, " Am suspeckin, may be, that's alee." (Some laughter.) 
 In this tasteful and persuasive Corn-Exchange style, he continued for a 
 time to rave and rail against the House of Lords, but the full tornado of 
 his eloquence could scarcely produce a ruffle on the surface of the Scottish 
 mind, and he was privileged to return to Darrynane to his own " much 
 loved and respected Lords,* and rs infecta it, to permit the " old 
 women" in London to retain their " old petticoats" till he can quietly 
 filch them to make him a new gown. (Loud cheers and laughter.) — 
 Yes, thank God, tliey still muster around the throne, interposing an 
 impassible barrier between King, and Commons, and people; preventing 
 the precipitancy of the one from hurrying onward to the throne of their 
 unfashioned and often abortive experiments at legislation, and shielding 
 the other from that " fieice democracy," that would rob the rich and rifle 
 the industrious, to endow the pauper, who will but beg, tho lazy that 
 wiU not work, or the factious and seditious demagogue who lives by mali- 
 ciously retarding the progressive improvements of his country. (Vehement 
 cheering.) Yes — well may we adopt the liturgy of Lord Brougham, and 
 say, from the bottom of our hearts, '* thank God wo have a House of 
 Lords." Well, now, I must furnish you one or two others of those pre- 
 cious extracts. " It is said," says O'Connell, " that we are looking for 
 ascendency, but tliis I utterly deny." Not much the more credible for 
 that, my friend Daniel. (A laugh.) " Recollect that this is not a sec- 
 tarian or party contest — our struggle is for the Protestant as well as the 
 (Roman) Catholic. The Orangpman, the Protestant, the Presbyterian, the 
 Dissenter — Irishmen of every class will be all equally benefitted." (Aye, 
 80 said Brutus when he had murdered his dearest friend " for the good of 
 HomeP) (Hear.) " And all are therefore alike bound to assist in promot- 
 ing it." — Now, for a wonder, there is truth in this ; and in that word 
 " we'' lies the hidden mystery, that appears to speak truth, while it con- 
 ceals the mystery of iniquity. (Hear, and cheers.) True, Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, you may well say of the collective Repealers, " we are not seek- 
 ing ascendency." No — you., and yon alone, are sent seeking it — (cheers) 
 — and when under the more pompous name of King Daniel the I! ! I or 
 the less imposing, but no less powerful one, of *' Lord Protector" — of 
 the commonwealth of Old Ireland — (cheers and laughter) — or, merely 
 under the bewitching title of " Liberator" and the death's head and cross 
 bones" of the resistless "Dictator." (Loud cheers.) It is all the same 
 to Daniel. Power, like the roses' perfume so sweet under any name, — 
 power is still power, whatever title your humility is pleased to assume.-— 
 
 ♦ Mr. O'Connell's title for the Romish Bishops. 
 
94 
 
 (Cheers.) You remember liow, even llie initreJ liead nrul crozierod 
 iiaad of Doyle must veil their liigli dignity in your presence. Yours is 
 the sole O'C. ascendancy, and since the days of '* Honest Jack Lawless" 
 and downwards, your every act is an additional proof that you are just 
 the man who can hear "no brother near the throne." — You say you are not 
 for (Roman) Catholic ascendancy. Well, I will believe you — yes, I will 
 believe you — and I tell you when — w henever you produce the number of 
 the Ulster Times in which you "recollected'' to have read my "autho- 
 rised contradiction of the report that I intended to cliallenge you to dis- 
 cuss Repeal." (Hear, and cheers.) Now, tlo not delay to do this — for 
 not only is your veracity at stake, but the moment you produce the do- 
 cument you so clearly " recollected" to liave read, and on the credit of 
 which you so courteously pronounced me, and the gulls shouted gae, a 
 double convicted liar, that moment I am bound to be your convert, 
 and you may perhaps find me as active and as useful a partisan and helper 
 as either Mr. Tom Steele or Mr. Billon Brown. But though I thus agree 
 to believe you, whenever your "recollection"' will believe for me — (a 
 laugh) — yet, must I entreat you — pray, Mr. O'Connell, stand a little 
 aside, till I see who is that black-coated, rosy, (not pale), faced gentleman 
 that is peering so wistfully over your shoulder ? Ah I is that you, the 
 mild and gentle John of Tuam, Lord paramount of Maronia, and i)atron 
 of the Isle of Achill ? (Loud cheers and laughter.) Aid who, " my 
 beloved and most respected Lord," pray who is that beside you ? Ah 1 
 it is that gentle, amiable, and apostolic man, Father Hughes — (hear, hear, 
 and cheers) — whose " ascendency" is the ascendency of the " pitchfork," 
 whose level is that of tlie '* Ban dog,'' and whose descendancy is tliat of 
 the " boghole." (Laughter and loud cheers.) You, my Lord John, and 
 you Father Hughes, ycu never once dreamed of " ascendancy;" no, never 
 " once," for it was the lullaby of your cra.lle before reason dawned ; it was 
 the lisp of your childhood before the day it was developed ; it was the 
 object of your manhood, it has been the idol of your age ; and with a pe spi- 
 cuityas clear as if I read j-our hearts, I can discover, from youracts and your 
 words, that you eat, drink, and sleep, ami wake, but on one thought — the 
 hour when the priest shall be transmuted into the lord of the parish. (Hear, 
 and cheers.) And, whatever it may please you. iMr. O'Connell, to 
 whisper in sweet words to the ears of the North, right well I know that 
 when your Southern conclave meet, " ascendancy," and ascendancy alone, 
 is the magnet that conglomerates the filings of the mass — the fire,' and 
 the anvil, and the hammer by which it is welded, till, forged into a sword 
 for the hand of rebellion, it goes forth to overturn the passive (jovern- 
 ment, and the credulous fellow subjects wlio foolishly looked on till it was 
 formed and sharpened for their destruction. (Loud cheering.) Yes, Mr. 
 O'Connell, say what you will, we interpret your meaning, not by words, 
 hut by deeds. We still remember " the ugly figure," as ycu called it, 
 of the " death's head and cross bones," and on an authority that we know 
 to be infallible, we have concluded that "out of the abundance of your 
 heart your mouth spoke." (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) And when, 
 with honied words, you would persuade us to follow you to Repeal, we 
 know it is the vision of ascendancy that is flitting before your mind's eye, 
 and that were we to follow you, it would be only to witness the last scene, 
 where Popish ascendancy, like the phantom dagger of Macbeth, is beckon- 
 ing you to the chamber where our liberty reposes. (Trenicadous cheers.) 
 
95 
 
 But ill the hands of Mr. 0'Co!ine]l. miracles will never coase. In anoth- 
 er part of the report of this unheaid of Ilepeal speech, he tells the 
 ignorant and unreadi/ig Northerns a thin;^ tiiey never knew before — he 
 tells them that, t^ince the Reformation, the Romanists of Ireland wero 
 'hree times in power, and yet never once attempted to persecute their 
 Protesvant brethren. As they say in some parts of England, ''that's a 
 whopper." (Laughter.) I would Mr. O'Connell, that I had been your 
 consulting counsel when you briefed that figment, 1 should have strongly 
 advised you to adopt a wise, though I admit it is a vulgar principle " let 
 sleeping dogs lie" (Cheers.) I cannot, however, deny it to be a specimen 
 of your very " genteel talent for invention." Standing here as a Con- 
 servative, a Protestant, a Christian, I would you had permitted me to 
 allow the by-gone events of other days to moulder in the tomes of our 
 history. I would you had allowed the dust and the cobwebs of time to 
 accumulate around them, 1 wish you had permitted his lenient surgery 
 to bind up the wounds both of ancient and of recent days. I wish you 
 had permitted oblivion to draw her veil over occurrences that were better 
 forgotten than recalled — or tliat we had been allowed to unite for the econ- 
 oujical, moral, and spiritual regeneration of our common country, I would 
 you had not compelled us, by raising up the records of the past, to sow 
 the seeds of differences for the present ; I would you had not compelled 
 me to call history to my aid, nor to demonstrate to my fellow Piotestants 
 the tender mercies of your "ascendancy" in other years, both in order 
 to warn and arouse them to resist your restoration. (Loud cheers.) 
 And, as you know you are not entitled to credit for any quotation from 
 ancient history, till you have verified your " recollection" from the more 
 modern chronicle of tl e Ulster Times — (hear, hear) — permit me then to 
 say, I have taken some pains to examine your " recollections" of ancient 
 history ; and though I admit I am far from your equal in history — nay, 
 though I admit, as your followers assert, that I am utterly your inferior 
 in all your greatest qualities, and that, to have met me in argument, would 
 have lowered beyond restoration the dignity of your character — still as 
 your humble fellow-studimt in history, I proceed to examine your three 
 epochs of " Popish ascendancy'' — epochs that will augment into four as I 
 proceed — and to furnish you with a few records of that milil, and tolerant, 
 and fostering spirit with which it invited, housed, fed and cherished its 
 truant, but beloved Protestantism. And now, lAlr. O'Connell, Ifiy aside 
 for a moment " your genteel talent of invention." To your book, 13aniel, 
 to your book, boy; and now for as good a lesson as you ever received, 
 since the day you first touched battledore. (Loud cheers, laughter, 
 and cries of hear, hear.) Now, I presume, A'Ir. O'Connell's first period 
 is that of Queen Mary ; and, with respect to that most kind-hearted and 
 gracious gentlewoman — it is said she did not persecute any one. Shades 
 of Craumer and of Ridley, and all ye fire-tried martyrs and noble army 
 of confessors, who kindled up in England the unextinguishable fire — ye 
 who not only taught her Church to know the truth, but her gallant sons 
 and her tender daughters to die for it — (hear, hear.) — bear witness to this 
 generation of the deeds of the past, and say whether your Papist Queen 
 was a gentle motlier or a bloody persecutor. (Hear.) And yet while 
 the fires of Smithfield still burn in tlie pages of history, Mr. O'Connell 
 tells us Mary was no persecutor. (Hear, hear.) But perhaps he means 
 to insinuate that her favours were reserved for Ireland — that island of 
 
96 
 
 saints-^tliat oasis of mercy in tlio desert of war and persecution — where 
 Popery like a beneficent foster-mother, hugged to her bosom England's 
 orphan ; where she furnished the outcast with a home, and the disin- 
 herited with an estate. If this be tlie figment he means to palm upon us 
 for history, we tell him, the man who pursuaded him to the attempt, 
 must be either an ignoramus or a hiave. And utrum hurum mavis 
 accipe — is good Latin even in Kerry, and Mr. O'Connell well understands 
 it without my translation. (Cheers and laughter.) I know not, and I 
 guess not, to what veracious chronicler he may have reference for his as- 
 sertion, but I pin him down to his own assertion, and for the forgery he 
 has attempted will " nail the rap to the counter." (Vehement cheering 
 and laughter.) First, then, does Mr. O'Connell know, that a meiciful 
 Providence, to counterwork the bigotry and cruelty of Mary, had led to 
 the appointment of a Lord Deputy, who was a concealed Protestant ? 
 (Hear) Does he not know that the proof of this lies in the fact, that 
 when Elizabeth came to the throne, and employed all her energies to 
 foster Protestantism, so far from dismissing Mary's Lord Deputy, she 
 continued him in office, out of gratitude for the protection he had 
 extended to the Protestants ; because being no longer a concealed, but 
 an avowed, Protestant, she could fully confide in him for the care 
 of her Protestant subjects? (Hear, hear, cheers, and loud laughter.) 
 But, as Mr. O'Conaell is a lawyer, I shall restrain him from his his- 
 toric gambols, by the fetter of leg-al authority. (Hear, hear.) I have 
 accounted ah'eady for any favour the Protestants enjoyed ; and now I 
 shall discover to him the tender mercies which Mary intended them to 
 enjoy. And here, it well becomes Irish Protestants to look back with 
 gratitude to that overruling Providence which called her to her last 
 account just when all her plans of persecution in Ireland were about 
 to be carried into terrible execution. The denial of this, Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, lies happily beyond the limits of your " genteel talents for inven- 
 tion." It lies in the authentic record of Max'y's instructions to the 
 Lord Deputy, touching the tender mercies she purposed for her Irish 
 Protestant subjects. The first article contained the following words : 
 — " That they should, by all good means possible" — (no doubt, Mr. 
 O'Connell, the means the Queen and her counsellors had found " so 
 very good" in Smithfield) — (hear, hear ) — " advance the honour of 
 God and the Catholic Church ; that they should set forth the honour 
 and dignity of the Pope's holiness." His holiness, Mr. O'Connell, his 
 holiness ! — the holiness of an heretical Liberius ! — of a " fasting," self- 
 denying Hildebrand ! — of a modest Joan ! — a gentle Julius ! and an 
 upright Sixtus the Fifth. (Cheers.) Yes, the Pope's " holiness" the 
 Irish Government were visibly to set forth, together with " the honour 
 and dignity of the See Apostolic of Rome." But how, Mr. O'Connell ? 
 By deeds of forbearance and mercy to her poor Protestant exiles who, 
 as you say, were invited over to be cherished in Ireland ? No. But 
 the Lord Deputy and Council were ordered " to be ready, from time 
 to time, with their aid and secular force, at the request," — mark it 
 well, Mr. O'Connell, — at the " request of a// spiritual ministers and 
 ordinaries to" — do what, Mr. O'Connell? — to provide houses rent free 
 in Dublin ? — to feed Protestants with food convenient ? — to clothe 
 them in nakedness, and cherish them in sickness ? — to visit them in 
 prison ? No, not one of all these mei'cies to shev/ — but ' to ruNiSH and 
 
97 
 
 REPHESS ALL HERETICS and Lollar'ds, and their damnable sects, opi- 
 nions, and eri'ors" (Great cheering.) Ah! Mr. O'Connell, read 
 that, and if you ever blushed when detected in a misdeed, spare " one 
 blush more" when exposed in the most palpable historic forgery that 
 ever was attempted to deceive the ignorant, or to gull the credulous , 
 (Loud cheers.) I have no doubt you may plead the authority of Tay- 
 lor — an historian exactly after your own heart — (hear, and a laugh) 
 — an historian that Avill be held for an authoi'ity, when you discover 
 the number cf the Ulster Tim^s containing my authenticated contra- 
 diction of a report concerning you, which, like Taylor, yoil " recollect" 
 to have read ; — (cries of hear, hear) — and when the Vindicator shall 
 prove that the crazy old shed that, for some years, has degraded one 
 of our streets, was an " immense Pavilion," expressly " erected for the 
 dinner." (Loud cheers and laughter.) But 1 have more heretic com- 
 fort still in store for you. The better to carry those instructions into 
 effect, an act, in the following year, reviving three statutes for the 
 punishment of heresy — of which the preamble — a true expede Hercu- 
 lem — runs as follows : — " For the escuying and avoiding of errors and 
 heresies, which, of late, have risen, growen, and mouche increased 
 within this realme ; for that the ordinaries have wanted authority to 
 proceed against those that were infected therewith ; be it therefore 
 ordeyned and enacted by the authority of this present parliament, that 
 the statute made," &c. Now, Mr. O'Connell, please chew these two 
 legal mouthfuls. (A laugh.) Yes, chew them well, and I will venture 
 to affirm, that never was there an animal that had munched, by mis- 
 take, a mouthful of rue, that chewed a more " bitter cud of disappoint- 
 ment" than Avill Daniel chew when he has swallowed the two bitter 
 historic pills 1 have now administered. (Hear, and loud cheers ) 
 But, passing from crabbed law, I shall now select for Mr. O'Connell's 
 historic study, a leaf out of my Lord Plunket's " old almanac" history. 
 And this shall bring us to period the second of Popish power in Ire- 
 land, subsequent to the Reformation — the never-to-be-forgotten year 
 1641. (Hear.) In that year the Romanists again assumed political 
 power — acting, as they then asserted, and as it is now certain they 
 did, under the commission and order of the unfortunate King Charles 
 the First.* Who has not heard of Sir Phelim O'Neill. (Hear, and 
 
 * The Royal Commission from Charles I., for the movements of 1641, has been 
 Strenously denied. The evidence of its reality seems, however, beyond controversy. 
 The evidence may be summed up as follows: — •(!.) Tlie Royal Commission was 
 published by Sir Phelim O'Neill himself, in liis proclamation from Newry, 161-1. 
 (2.) It was reprinted in the ^' Mifsterie of Iniqtikt),'' 164.3. (3.) In " Viccdrs Par- 
 liamentanj Chronicle,'" 1616. (4.) In "Milton's Works," 1698. And those who 
 desire to see tiie genuineness of the Commission fully canvassed, may consult Brodie, 
 vol. iii. p. 190 — 9; and Godwin, vol. i. p. 225—30. (5.) Even lleilly, a staunch 
 Romanist, admits that Lords Auburn and Ormond were instructed by Charles to 
 seize the Castle of Dublin, tiie Lords Justices, &c., and that Sir Pheliiii merely 
 endeavoured to have the first hand in the work. In this statement, it is not intended 
 to implicate King Charles in the guilt of the massacre, but merely in the folly of 
 commencing a movement, he afterwards could not control. Just as there may now 
 be some weak-minded Repealers who, by the plausible speeches and professions of 
 t'.ie agitators, are deceived into the opinion thit they mean to benefit their country, 
 and maintain the integrity of the empire, and who would in vain, hereafter, express 
 their regrets, when the Repeal they had foolishly encouraged had finally ripened 
 into Rebellion and dismemberment. No doubt, by the power of England, til it 
 Rebellion, like its " Precursor, ' would be finally suppressed. But, is the SL^ppres^i«m 
 
 N 
 
98 
 
 a lauoh.) Aye, of Plielimy Roe, and iiis slaiigliter ?" (Hear, hear.) 
 Who has not heard of his march upon Belfast, and how lie was com- 
 pelled to call a halt, hy the gallant men of Lisburn. (Hear, hear.) — 
 And surely this great meeting will permit me to indulge an honest joy, 
 when I mention the historic fact, that the first effective resistance to 
 his invasion, was headed by the gallant Lawson, of Derry, who was a 
 Presbyterian — (loud cheers) — a Presbyterian, not actuated by the mi- 
 serable prejudices of a repulsive sectarianism, but bound to his Pro- 
 testant brethren of the establishmen'., by the attractive and uniting 
 impulses of common principles, and of common danger. (Loud cheers.) 
 The Romanists, as I have said, had their royal authority and political 
 power — and gently and tenderly did Sir Phelim and they employ it ! 
 But Mr. O'Connell, in his hurry in consulting authorities, must have 
 skipped over this page of Irish history ; or, perhaps, some one had cut 
 out the page, and, so Daniel could say, like an unprepared schoolboy, 
 " that's not in my book" — (a laugh) — or, perhaps, — for there is uD end 
 to possibilities where Daniel is concerned — perhaps some printer's fa- 
 miliar, had pasted the leaves together ; or, certainly, as he cannot dis- 
 tinguish between John and Henryy his eyesight is failing — (a laugh) 
 -^and to that cause we must attribute his short coming. And un- 
 doubtedly, his memory is gone — and no living man has need of a bet- 
 ter — (a laugh) — for he cam>ot " recollect" what number of the Ulster 
 Times, is to prove me doubly " a liar in my own person" although the 
 files were courteously offered to be laid on his table, and we might 
 opine he had leisure enough during four long nights, and three short 
 days, in the lock-up hoxise, Donegall-place, to have made the impor- 
 tant discovery. (Loud cheers and laughter.) I tell you, Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, in more seriousness than the subject seems to warrant, that, in 
 this your northern tour, like Madam Piozzi's old man, " you've had 
 more than your three sufficient warnings :" first, your memory's gone % 
 secondly, your eyesight ; thirdly, your judgment ; fourthly, your popu- 
 larity ; fifthly, your bullying ; for though the House of Commons were 
 roused when you called them rvifSans, and quailed beneath an apology, 
 that doubted the insult ; still, your skulking from a personal encoun- 
 ter, through your genteel " talent of invention," will not only encou- 
 rage others to assail you, but will furnish them a weapon from which 
 even " triple brass," will not be sufficient to defend you. (Loud cheers.) 
 With these warnings, Mr. O'Connell, it is full time you should prepare 
 for your change. As to your natural life, I pray, it may be long and 
 happy. I pray that you may have grace to see all your errors ; and; 
 in good time, exchange this scene of turbulence, for one of rest and 
 peace. But, in the mean time, I call you to another change — put off 
 that painted mountebank coat, in which you gull your poor country- 
 men to buy and swallow your nostrums. (Hear, hear.) Put off that 
 false profession of mercenary patriotism in which you traffic alike for 
 shouts and for halfpence — above all, put off that visor of hypocrisy, 
 beneath which, while you profess religion, you practice untruth. — 
 (hear, hear) — and put away that lip-loyalty by which you would flatter 
 a Queen, Avhile you would rend her empire — (loud cheers) — and stand 
 forth, what you are, a venal disturber of your country, a traitor to 
 
 of the monster any consolation for its raischief ? None. Prevention is still better 
 ihan cure. 
 
99 
 
 your Queen, and a liar to your God. (Vehement cheering.) Yes, 
 Mr. O'Connell, I call you by your proper name ; and I take the brand 
 of unquestioned history to enstamp it deep upon your forehead. (Hear, 
 hear.) You say the Romanists in Ireland, during the three periods of 
 their political power, never once persecuted, but on the contrary, in- 
 vited to their shores, and fostered and protected the Protestants. Now, 
 lest you should hold parley with me about 1641, I shall return to 1553, 
 the era of your beloved Mary, in whose auspicious reign, Taylor's 33 
 apocryphal houses were opened by the Romanists in Dublin, for the 
 reception of the British Protestants. In June of that memorable year, 
 Mai'y ascended the throne, and, in the following month of September, 
 either commenced or was completed the persecution of Bale, bishop of 
 Ossory, one of the brightest ornaments for learning, piety, and zeal, 
 that ever adorned the Established Church of Ireland. Five of his ser- 
 vants were murdered in one night, and he was forced to fly for protec- 
 tion of his life to Kilkenny. Here he remained for some time, in the 
 faithful utterance of his testimony, but being in daily danger of his 
 life, he obeyed his Lord's injunction ; and, " being persecuted in one 
 city, he fled to another ;" and, after many difficulties and dangers, suc- 
 ceeded in reaching the continent. And nevei', Mr. O'Connell, did the 
 Established Church, or any other Church in Ireland, possess a nobler 
 son, a brighter ornament, than Bale; and, as once I did travel a pil- 
 grimage of some miles, that I might stand by the tomb of Bedel of 
 Kilmore, as many, yea more, would I travel to stand by the tomb of 
 Bale of Ossory — the man justly characterized as jacile princep? 
 amongst the mightiest of the Reformers, and ranked above Luther, 
 Platina, and Vergerius, in his faithful exposure of the heresies and usur- 
 pations of Rome. (Hear, hear, and cheering.) There, Mr. O'Con- 
 nell, is an example for you of the manner in which the Romanists 
 treated an Irish Protestant Bishop, in the reign of the mild and tole- 
 rant Queen Mary — (hear, hear) — and if you wish to know on what 
 authority it is founded, I refer you to '• Reid's History of the Presby- 
 terian Church in Ireland," vol. i., pages 40 and 41. We now revert, 
 Mr. O'Connell, more particularly to the second period of Popish 
 ascendancy in Ireland, 1641. (Hear, hear.) Yes, you do well to 
 cry '= Hear," and let Ulster hear ; and let Ireland, in all her provinces, 
 hear ; and let England's Court and Parliament hear ; while, contra- 
 dicted by the testimony of unquestioned history, INIr. O'Connell stands 
 elevated on the pillory of public condemnation — " the bad, bad emi- 
 nence" from which he will never descend, unless he break off^ his 
 sins by repentance, and fly to the mercy of an offended God. (Cries 
 of " Hear, hear.") And here, Mr. O'Connell, allow me a word of 
 apology for the heavy sentence and portentous denunciation I have 
 just uttered against you. You have often delighted to call yourself 
 " the best abused man in the kingdom," but you have always forgot 
 to tell you were yourself the most abusive man in the universe. (Hear, 
 hear.) I state not this oversight of yours to vindicate myself for any 
 severity of language I may have applied, or intended to apply to yor. 
 No, I remind you of it, that I may grapple with that feeling of senti- 
 mentality, that will not distinguish between abusing the man and de ■ 
 nouncing his sins. (Hear, hear.) As a sinner I speak, knowing the 
 grace of God in his Sou — and I speak of your sins but as I desire to 
 
100 
 
 speak of my own. I abuse you not as a man, but I do denounce you 
 as a sinner — not as a man, however, truly confessing, ashamed of, or 
 forsaking his sin — but as a man whose very " trade" is sin — sin, the 
 first that beclouded Paradise — sin, the meanest practiced on earth — sin, 
 the last condemned in the lake that burneth — where is every thing 
 that " loveth or maketh a lie !" (Hear, hear.) I lead you back, ac- 
 cordingly, not in anger but in pity, to your speech in Dublin, where 
 you twice denounced me as a liar. Have you apologised for the injury 
 
 have you repented of the sin ? I Know you have not done the first, 
 
 ?ind, till that take place, you cannot have attained the other. (Hear, 
 hear.) 1 have led you to the reign of Queen Mary, and exhibited you, 
 by irrefragible documents, as a wilful perverter of the history of that 
 reign, and now I offer, through you to the public, some means of fur- 
 ther testing your truth, when you assert that toleration, nay, kindue ss, 
 was extended to Protestants during every post-reformation period of 
 Popish ascendancy in Ireland. And here, my Lord, I shall read to the 
 meeting a few brief extracts from Dr. Reid's History, as specimens of the 
 mercy, toleration, and kindness, enjoyed by the Irish Protestants, dur- 
 ing that disastrous period of their history — a period which, I solemnly 
 believe, Mr. O'Connell is either intentionally or practically labouring 
 to re-produce — (hear, hear) — and from which may God in his infinite 
 mercy protect this distracted land! (Hear, hear.) The extracts 
 which I now read in brief, I have noted on the margin of the books 
 before me, and shall afterwards furnish to the newspapers in full de- 
 tail. Now, this being the second post-reformation period of Popish 
 ascendancy in Ireland, it must be the second period, during which, 
 Mr. O'Connell says, Protestants were not persecuted. Lest it should, 
 however, be caviled ill manners, I will not accuse Mr. O'Connell of tell- 
 ing an historical lie ; but I must say with the good-natured Scotsman, 
 — " He's a great economist of truth !" (Cheers and laughter.) 
 
 " Ireland was now in a state of universal tranquility. — At no former period had 
 the country enjoyed so much real prosperity, and so long internal peace. All dis- 
 satisfaction or anxiety with respect to defective titles, had been removed by the 
 confirmation of the graces, and by other conciliatory acts of the sovereign and the 
 English Parliament. The Roman Catholic party enjoyed ample toleration. Their 
 nobility were unrestricted in their privileges, and shared in the titles and dignities 
 conferred on the peers of Ireland by James and Charles. Their gentry were mem- 
 bers of parliament, judges, magistrates, and sheriffs. Tlieir lawyers occupied the 
 same station at the bar as Protestants, and practised as freely in the courts of law. 
 Their clergy were unmolested in the performance of their religious rites, and their 
 other ecclesiastical functions. In obtaining the redress of national grievances, both 
 Protestants and Romanists cordially co-operated. The constitutional administration 
 of the Lords justices were universally popular; and a new era of national improve- 
 ment and civilization appeared to be opening on this long distracted country. 
 
 " But these anticipations were awfully disappointed ' The hopes conceived from 
 
 a peace of forty years, from the gradual improvement of the nation, from the acti- 
 vity of its parliament, from the favourable disposition of the king, from tlie temper of 
 the English parliament, were in an instant confounded ; and the calamities of for- 
 mer times revived in all their bitterness.' 
 
 "In Ulster, the rebellion broke out at the appointed time; and, owing to the 
 defenceless state of the Protestants, and their consternation at so sudden and simul- 
 taneous an attack, it met, for a time, with no effectual resistance." 
 
 *• On the 23d of October, 1641, and within a few days after, the Irish rebels 
 made slaughter of all men, women, and children, which they could lay hands on, 
 within the county of Antrim, that were Protestants, burning their houses and corn.'* 
 
 '* Sir Con Magennis took possession of Dromore, and treated with wanton and 
 ^provoked cruplty the few Protestants who had ventured to remain. Having 
 
101 
 
 burned llie town, lie fell back to Newry, wiiere be eflected a junction willi Sif 
 Phelim O'Neill, who, finding himself placed, without controul, at tlie head ofa much 
 more formidable force than he had ever anticipated, immediately abandoned what 
 may be called the royal, and prosecuted the original, scheme of the insurrection ; 
 and henceforth openly aimed at the extirpation of the entire Protestant population, 
 whether of English or Scottish descent. He, therefore, encouraged his infuriated 
 followers to give free vent to the direful passions of hatred and revenge, wliich the 
 Romish priesthood had for years been fostering in the breasts of their people, against 
 their Protestant neighbours. The insurrection was speedily converted into a religi- 
 ous war, carried on with a vindictive fury and a savage ferocity, whicli have been 
 seldom exceeded. Though the enterprise was now formally disowned by Charles, 
 and though Sir Phelim, by his brutal excesses, had disgusted some of the more 
 ardent of his original associates, yet urged on by Ever M'Mahon, Romish Bisliop 
 of Down, he plunged into the deepest atrocities. 
 
 " The sliocking tale of the cruelties perpetrated by the undisciplined and blood- 
 thirsty levies of O'Neill, during several months, has been often told ; by none more 
 effectually than by the female historian of England (Mrs. Macauley.) * An univer- 
 sal massacre ensued ; nor age, nor sex, nor infancj', were spared ; all conditions were 
 involved in the general ruin. In vain did the unhappy victim appeal to the sacred 
 tics of humanity, hospitality, family connexion, and ti.e tender obligations of social 
 commerce ; companions, friends, relatives, not only denied protection, but dealt with 
 their own hand?, the fatal blow. In vain did the pious son plead for his devoted 
 parent ; himself was doomed to suffer a more premature mortality. In vain did the 
 tender mother attempt to soften the obdurate heart of the assassin in behalf of her 
 helpless children ; she was reserved to see them cruelly butchered, and then to un- 
 dergo a like fate. The weeping wife lamenting over the mangled carcase of her 
 husband, experienced a death no less horrid than that which she deplored. Tliis 
 scene of blood received yet a deeper stain, from the wanton exercise of more execrable 
 cruelty than had ever yet occured to the warm and fertile imagination of Eastern 
 barbarian. Women, whose feeble mind received yet a stronger impression of reli- 
 gious phrenzy, were more ferocious than the men ; and children, excited by the ex- 
 ample and exhortation of their parents, stained their innoeent age with the blackest 
 deeds of human butchery.' 
 
 " The persons of the English were not the only victims to the general rage : their 
 commodious houses and magnificent buildings were either consumed with fire, or 
 laid level with the ground. Their cattle, though now part of the possession of tlieir 
 murderers, because they had belonged to abhorred heretics, were either killed out- 
 right, or, covered with wounds, were fumed loose into the woods and deserts, there 
 to abide a lingering, painful end. This amazing, unexpected scene of horror, was 
 yet heightened by the bitler revilings, imprecations, threats and insults which every 
 where resounded in the ears of the astonished English. Their sighs, groans, shrieks, 
 cries, and bitter lamentations, were answered with — ' Spare neither man, woman 
 nor child ; the English are meat for dogs ; there shall not be one drop of Englisli 
 blood left within the kingdom.' Nor did there want the most barbarous insults and 
 exultation on beholding those expressions of agonizing pain which a variety of tor- 
 ments extorted. 
 
 •' Nor was the rage of the rebels confined to the unoffending Protestant clergy. 
 Every thii.g which could be considered in any way identified with Protestanism was 
 wantonly destroyed. The Bible, in a particular manner, was an object on which 
 the Romanists vented the detestation of the truth. ' They have torn it in pieces,' 
 says the commissioners in their remonstrance presented, by the agent of the Irish 
 clergy, to the English Commons, scarcely four months after the breaking out of the 
 rebellion, ' they have kicked it up and down, treading it under foot, with leaping 
 thereon, they causing a bag-pipe to play the while : laying also the leaves in the 
 kennel, leaping and trampling thereon ; saying ' a plague on it, this book hath bred 
 all the quarrel," hoping within three weeks, all the Bibles in Ireland should be so 
 used or worse, and that none should be left in the kingdom : and while two Bibles 
 were burning, saying |that it was hell-fire that was burning, and wishing that they 
 had all the Bibles in Christendom, that they might use them so." 
 
 The devastations committed during' this second period of " tender 
 mercies" it is now impossible, accurately, to ascertain, but the follow- 
 ing are some of the various calculations which the writers nearest the 
 loelancholy period Ij^ve left upon record : — ■ 
 
102 
 
 " The following is <i brief summary of the calculation? of the more eminent Pro- 
 testant writers. May (p. 81) estimates the number slain at 200,000 i;i the first 
 month. Temple makes it 130,000 in the first two months, or 300,000 In two years. 
 Itapin (ix. 343) gives 130,000 in about four months. Lord Clarendcn (i. 2£9) says 
 that about iO,000 were murdered at the first outbreak before any danger was appre- 
 hended, and he is followed by Hume. Sir William Petty, a very expert and accu- 
 rate calculator, computes that 37,000 perished within the first year." 
 
 I come now to what I suppose Mr. O'Connell's third period — that 
 of the ill-fated James il. I doubt net I am addressing the descendants 
 of some who were driven under the walls of Derrj. I know I hold 
 the card of one honoured individual whose ancestor acted a conspicuous 
 part in its defence.* And I wot of another who had no name to be 
 either honoured or recorded ; but, at the first outbreak of the rebellion, 
 all his family was murdered but one little child ; driven from a distant 
 part of the county Down, with thousands of starving Protestants, he 
 carried his child in his arms to Derry, and was happily one of those 
 admitted into the city for its defence. But when he mounted guard at 
 night he had no nurse for his little one, so carried it with him to the 
 wall, and placing it between the embrasures, wheie the cannon frowned 
 defiance on James and slavery, — (cheers) — Providence protected him 
 in the midst of famine and denth ; and when, in after years, he was 
 questioned how he fared at night for shelter, " well enough," was the 
 reply, " I had the shelter of my father's gun." (Cheers.) Yes, God 
 protected that motherless and homeless boy, and he who now addresses 
 you is that boy's humble descendant. (Enthusiastic cheers.) Repulsed 
 from the walls of Derry, James hastened to meet his mock Parliament 
 in Dublin ; and then proceeded, not in military, but in Mr. O'Connell's 
 true and legal style, the third specin-.en of Popish ascendancy tolerat- 
 ing and fostering Protestants. But how ? Why, by the most bare- 
 faced act of wholesale robbery ever put on record ; and what renders 
 the robbery still more execrable, under the royal hypocritical mask of 
 liberty of conscience, and respect for property. (Hear, hear, hear.) 
 By one dash of the royal pen, the Acts of Settlement and Explanation 
 were repealed, — (hear, and a laugh) — and all Protestants who held 
 their estates under these acts, whether as original grantees, purchases, 
 or by mortgage, were deprived of them in the true style of O'Connell 
 slapdash. (Hear, hear.) Yes, O'Connell is the boy for a slapdash. 
 (A laugh.) He promised to breakfast in Newry, and attend a proces- 
 sion 50,000 strong', and to give an hour and a half'j to deploy and march, 
 " the green flag waving o'er them." But he passed through at a 
 slapdash, — (loud laughter.) — and silence smiled at sleeping echo in 
 Trainer's lonely hayloft.f (Loud Laughter.) By slapdash he was 
 spirited through Hillsborough, and looked sadly askance upon the 
 valley where the army of William reposed, on their glorious march to 
 the Boyne. (Great cheering.) Through Lisburn, another slapdash, 
 with colours flying. (A laugh.) It is true ; but they were the colours 
 of his rosy face, for a danger that existed but in his own heart. (Hear, 
 hear.) And by final slapdash he " invaded" his hotel, and speedily 
 bivoucked in his bed-room. (Laughter and cheers,) And there he 
 
 * Lieutenant Colonel Cairnes — tlic allusion to whom, as occupying a place on llie 
 platform near the speaker, produced an instantaneous burst of applause. 
 
 f The place oi the <jrcut O'Connell Banquet where t! ere was no dinner to eat. 
 
103 
 
 \aj per cine, like a haro in hex* form, without one ray of comfort, even 
 from the ghostly consolations of Donog'all-street. (Cheers.) Now I 
 should not have troubled you with this "tedious brief history" — (a 
 laugh) — of Mr. O'Connell's talent for slapdash, or coicp de main, were 
 it not that cvei'y article of his Repeal project is borrowed from the 
 slapdash Parliament of King James. (Hear, and cheers.) In that 
 Parliament, Protestant property was, — what shall I call it ? Annihi- 
 lated ? No, no, that cannot be. Mr. O'Connell, that learned and 
 profound historian, has discovered that, during every period of Popish 
 ascendancy in Ireland, Protestants were always fostered ! Bravo, 
 Daniel — (cheers) — when you say it, it must have been so ; aye, and 
 it was so, with a witness ; for — witness the king's hand — the Protes- 
 tants were so cherished, that they were delivered from the intolerable 
 trouble of managing their estates, — (cheers and laughter) — and the 
 labour both of recovering and spending their rents, most generously 
 undertaken by the ascendancy. (Hear, hear, laughter, and cheers.) 
 And this, doubtless, is, what Daniel calls fostering the Protestants. — 
 Had James prevailed, we should not to-day have been surrounded by 
 the Hills, the Chichesters, the Needhams, the Loftuses, and the Wat- 
 sons ; they would have been foster-nursed, a fa Daniel, with a ven- 
 geance — (cheers) — and the next time he sits to H.B. for his jsicture, I 
 trust he will consent to be represented in the character of an Irish 
 nurse, with Protestantism as baby, which he is rocking with his one 
 hand, whilst stealing its pinafore and frock with the other. (Roars of 
 laughter and cheers.) Mr. O'Connell has given us three periods of 
 Popish ascendancy, and if he can say — hum — with the benevolent Uncle 
 Toby, I'll treat him to a fourth — the very days we live in. (A voice, 
 " You forget Scull abogue.") Oh ! I thank you ; I had indeed thought 
 of that period, but it would have escaped me but for this refresher. 
 Yes, yes ; there was a time when the peo^ile of Ulster were nearly lured 
 between the Scylla and Chai'ybdis of disaffection and rebellion, and the 
 genius of Popery was the syren that sung them amidst the breakers, 
 the whirlpools, and the rocks. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But the 
 time will never come when the Presbyterians of Ulster will be found 
 at the tail of O'Connell. (Cheers.) He tells of 33 houses, charitably 
 provided in Dublin by Romanists, for the persecuted Protestants of 
 Bristol. I would his antiquarian search would tell where they were 
 situated. He knows what house was provided for them at Scullabogue ! 
 (Hear, hear.) The burning roof above, and the bristling pikes with- 
 out — (hear, hear) — where the helpless infant, whose cries might have 
 moved some pity, was cast back into the flames it had escaped, a victim 
 to the Moloch of a fiendish and perennial intolerance. (Hear, hear.) 
 And does he know the house prepared for them at Wexford ? The 
 heavens their only covering, the bridge their kneeling-place, the 
 demi-savage and his pike their only judge and executioner. (Hear.) 
 Why, why, Mr. O'Connell, do you force us, in self-defence against 
 your falsifications of history, to revert to those evil days? Already 
 we have forgiven : why will you not permit us to forget ? I tell you, 
 Mr. O'Connell, the unhappy men and women who fell victims at Scul- 
 labogue barn and Wexford Bridge have been the political saviours of 
 their country. (Loud cheering.) Though they perished, they live. 
 They live in our remembrance — their deaths opened the political eyes 
 
104 
 
 of the many thousands of Ulster ; and the names of Wexford and 
 Scullabogue form an answer to all your arguments for Repeal. We 
 have heard some days ago from Dublin, that the Presbyterians are 
 great Reformers. With this I agree, for they wish to reform Mr. 
 O'Connell ; but, that they are Reformers in any other sense, I prove 
 by the 85 witnesses that lately assembled in Belfast, and who, in the 
 genuine spirit of a precursor society of reform, 
 
 " Resolved, that all res ,lves are vain — 
 Resolved, we ne'er resolve again. (Laughter.) 
 
 No, no. The time will never come when the mass of Presbyterians, 
 now united in the General Assembly, will become sharers in any de- 
 partment of the present conspiracy against the Queen, the country, and 
 the constitution. (Cheers.) 
 
 I come now to the fifth period of Popish ascendancy — for two more 
 have grown out of Daniel's three — (a laugh) — and the fifth period is, 
 the reign of King Daniel himself — (cheers, and a laugh) — lately 
 crowned in the "immense Pavilion" by the title of the " Peaceful Con- 
 queror T* Now, of King Daniel's own method of cherishing Protes- 
 tants, I can say no more than that he takes great pleasure in starving 
 them — (hear, hear) — but that, I may presume, is merely to initiate 
 them in his own art of "fasting."f (Cheers and a laugh.) But of the 
 manner in which his loving subjects cherish them, I can speak more 
 distinctly. They, when they can, just kill them for kindness. (Hear, 
 hear.) I recollect once, in an argument on establishments of religion, 
 I was taunted with the assertion, that no established church had ever 
 produced a martyr. I immediately retorted upon my antagonist by a 
 list of many recently produced by the Established Church in Ireland ; 
 and, when 1 now repeat to Mr. O'Connell the names of a Foote, a Fer- 
 guson, a Huston, or a Whitty, does not this array of the murdered 
 ministers of Protestantism render him utterly ashamed of the assertion, 
 that ascendant Popery has always been mild and tolerant ? Yes, Mr, 
 O'Connell ; and it ought to render you more than ashamed — for, no 
 matter by whose hands these victims fell, upon your soul rests the ori- 
 ginal guilt, for you planned and fostered the agitation from which these 
 murders sprung — (hear) — and if ever there comes a time when your 
 darkened eyes shall be enlightened, and your hard heart softened, the 
 phantoms of the sheeted dead, whom your agitations consigned to early 
 and bloody tombs, will flit before you, whether in waking or in sleeping- 
 hours, and become the means, in mercy, of leading you to repentance, 
 or the means, in judgment, of plunging you in despair. (Hear, hear.) 
 Or think you, Mr. O'Connell, that Protestants can ever forget, that 
 to you they are indebted for the cherishing project of extinguishing 
 some hundreds of their churches in Ireland ? I lent my feeble aid to 
 extinguish that most wicked proposal ; and look back, with grateful 
 satisfaction to the day when our combined efforts in Exeter Hall ex- 
 pun"-ed the disgraceful record from the journals of the House of Com- 
 
 * His bust was, for a time, presented to the spectators with this inscription. And 
 the motto contained not the first disappointed prophecy of Daniel and his Belfast 
 
 friends. . • , • ,^ . ,. ■ - , • . 
 
 f See his proclamation of his tasting acliievements, in his Dublin speech, in which 
 he declined Dr. Cooke's challenge. Yes; Daniel saj/s he /asfs— and he has great 
 need of it. 
 
105 
 
 inons. (Cheers.) I rejoice In recollecting the scathing ridicule — 
 ridicule, never a test of truth, hut an inextinguishable consumer of 
 imposture and hypocrisy — Providence enabled me to cast upon the 
 guilty project and the enslaved projector. My proposal was, to insti- 
 tute a Society for the extinction of Lighthouses, and an estimate of the 
 boundless gratitude of merchants aad sailors, and widows and orphans. 
 Never was I apparently so unable to speak : but God strengthened me 
 mightily : and I was one of those who were privileged to give a death- 
 blow to your cherishing kindness, and to deliver the country from the 
 guilt of extinguishing the light in the dark places just where it was 
 mast needed. (Hear, hear, and cheers.) But I had almost forgot how, 
 in referring to the cruel purpose of Queen Mary against the Protes- 
 tant<, you call Ussher " superficial," because he gave credit to the com- 
 mission of Dr. Cole, to " lash the Heretics of Ireland.' * I can pardon 
 you, Mr. O'Connell, when you call Ussher superficial — and, 1 think, 
 you will pardon me, when I pronounce you />>'o/t)?f«^/. (Cheers.) Ussher 
 superficial ! — Mr. O'Connell being the judge. Ussher superjicial ! 
 The man whose historic memory embraced all time — the man whose 
 research no record could escape — the man who had digged into 
 every darkest mine of learning, and returned to upper air, not 
 merely like him that returns with precious ores, but like him that 
 ascends with the gems that lend ornature to beauty, or splendour to 
 ci'owns ! Above all, the man whose mildness won every heart to cling 
 to him, and to love him — the man whose eye of faith, and wing of de- 
 votion, looked and soared — yea, lived in Heaven — he superficial ! I 
 can only answer, Daniel, Daniel, you are certainly profound ; " and in 
 your lowest depth a lower still." (Cheers and laughter.) 
 
 Another of Mr. O'Connell's Repeal propositions must be understood 
 to declare, that his efforts are not " sectarian" and that a man without 
 '* toleration'' cannot be a Christian. Now, this last assertion is a point 
 upon which I shake hands with Mr. O'Connell. (^Cheers and laughter.) 
 But, if so, Mr. O'Connell, what will become of the Pope? (Hear, 
 hear.) Gregory XVI. (I am scarcely sure of the name, but I pledge 
 myself to the fact),f in his famous Encyclical Letter, denounces liberty 
 of conscience " a most pestilential error*' and liberty of the press, as 
 " never to he sufficiently execrated.^* Now, is not your Pope Infallible ? 
 
 * In October, 1558, Dr. Cole was despatched by Queen Mary with a commission 
 to Lord Deputy Fitzwalter, authorizing him to proceed in the detection and punish- 
 ment of Protestants. When at Chester he shewed her commission to the Mayor, at 
 the Blue Posts Inn, kept by Elizabeth Edmonds. She, having Protestant relatives 
 in Dublin, watched her opportunity, took the box out of the Doctor's cloak pocket, 
 and substituted, for the Commission, a parcel of a similar size. Arrived at Dublin, 
 Dr. Cole waited on the Council, and produced his box. When lo ! instead of a com- 
 mission, out came a pack of cards, with the emblematic knave of elubs uppermost. Dr. 
 Cole was astounded ; but the Lord Deputy facetiously observed — " Let us, then, have 
 a new commission ; and, in the mean time, we will shuffle the cards." Dr. Cole re- 
 turned, and obtained his commission ; but, before it could be esecuted, the wretched 
 Queen was called to her account. Leland seems to throw doubt upon this account ^ 
 but there appears no ground to question its accuracy, beyond the word of that '^pro- 
 found'' historian, O'Connell, and he is believed to have a " hereditary" antipathy to 
 "thk knave of clubs. ' 
 
 f Dr. Cooke was right, both in name and fact. Tlie Belfast Priests — at least, 
 their press — have denied the exisience of such a letter. They may just as well deny 
 their own ; and perhaps they will : and if they do, who can prove it ? 
 
 O 
 
1C6 
 
 —so you affirm ; and had he power according to his will, where were 
 human liberty, if conscience were fettered, and the press annihilated ? 
 (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Ah ! perchance under that happy re- 
 gime the veracious Vindicator that built the " immense Pavilion" — 
 that beautiful " house that Jack built" — (cheers) — might find it neces- 
 sary to look more narrowly to his words, else a missive from Rome 
 might furnish a new " distribution" to his types, and a new eniploy- 
 ment for his blackball. (Cheers and laughter.) Daniel, if you be a 
 judge, the Pope's no Christian — (cheers) — and I will pay you an an- 
 nual rent, the longest day I live, if you just go to Rome and honestly 
 tell him so. (Cheers.) And I really think you should go, and I'll 
 tell you why. Rome is a good place for the study of painting ; and, 
 as you have lately tvu-ned portrait-painter, and have exhibited great 
 precocity of genius for the art, I think a little Roman finish would 
 render you a Parliamentary Vandyke. (Cheers and laughter.) I have 
 myself lately had the honour of your pencil, and with the true dignity 
 of a Milesian gentleman, you have drawn me as "a pale-faced, bland- 
 looking, cunning-eyed cleric — with a countenance in which there is 
 very little worth borrowing." Well, believe me, Daniel, I'm glad of 
 that last touch of your pencil, for it's little you would leave me that 
 was at all worthy your " appropriation." (Roars of laughter.) You 
 paint me "pale-faced ;" I am glad you didn't draw me " wliite-livered.' 
 (Cheers.) No, that I suspect is too much your own colour — (cheers 
 and laughter) — a tinge in which you have greatly improved since your 
 late jaunt to Belfast. (Loud cheers) Daniel, I have such a pale face 
 as God was pleased to give me — but thanks be to Him, it has never 
 yet had cause to blush for my saying behind any man's back, what I 
 dared not utter to his face. (Tremendous cheering.) But to relieve 
 this tedium, I shall tell you a story of Mr. O'Connell's mild and tole- 
 rant Queen Mary. (Hear, hear.) It was in her inauspicious reign 
 that Calais was taken by France — and when she was dying, she said to 
 her attendants, " If you open me when I am dead, you will find ' Calais* 
 written on my heart." Now, while I heartily wish Daniel O'Connell 
 long life and good healthy yet Daniel at last will die ; and, when en-, 
 tombed in the appropriate retreat of " Bully's-acre,"| Michael Cullen,t 
 if yet you tread the purlieus of Channel-row, you owe me an ancient 
 kindness — and, when " clothed are the skies in black, and the winds 
 howl horrible round the mansions of the dead," grub up the body of 
 the defunct Daniel, and bear it for my sake, gently, to the Richmond 
 Theatre of Anatomy ; and let some curious hand, with sharpened seal- 
 pel and hooked tenaculum, carefully dissect Daniel's lai'ger eye — and 
 indelible upon the retina, you will, perhaps, discover the image of a 
 " pale-faced" man — (loud cheers) — whose picture follows the charlatan, 
 like the shadowy visions of the hypochondriac, pointing with steady 
 finger to an unopen file of the Ulster Times, and repeating in the ear 
 of a convulsive conscience — " where, Daniel, where?" (Loud cheers.) 
 My lord, I owe to your lordship, and to this vast and splendid assembly, 
 
 f The burial-place of Dublin beggars, and forncerly the chief resort of the un- 
 happy race of " body-snatchers. ' 
 
 \ A once well known attendant of that valuable School of Anatomy and Surgery ; 
 and; perhaps, the only member of his profession %vho ever raised a body, and with the 
 aid of the mob, in open day light. This fact, however, he actually achieved. 
 
107 
 
 a most profound apolog-y, not merely fur the length of this address, 
 but for the pervading- egotism with wnich it has been so largely occu- 
 pied. (No, no — go on.) And yet, I may not conclude, without a few 
 words more relative to myself, and explanatory of the too prominent 
 position, I felt it my duty to take. (No, you are in the right position.) 
 My lord, 1 am tliankfal for the kindness that judges so, but I am no 
 less sensible, that this kindness is partiality. Now, my lord, I will 
 say, that, in common with many, I have been an attentive student of 
 Mr. Daniel O'Counell. He is a mighty man. But long before he 
 entered Parliament, as the wooden horse entered the walls of Troy, 
 Mr. O'Connell had laid open to me tha secret jjowers upon which he 
 depended. The one I learned when in the streets of Eunis, he knelt 
 to a Popish Bishop — the other, when he registered a vow against two 
 
 English i>aronets — which, if he don't remember, I have not fox-got 
 
 The first I did not dread, for Babylon is doomed to fall — the second 1 
 tlid not fear, simply because God had shown it me ; and I therefore 
 have waited till opportunity and duty should meet in leaduig me to the 
 encounter, in which, I verily believe, not I, but God and truth would 
 utterly cast him uovs'n — (cheers) — I believed in the fact — I, in some de- 
 gree, mistook the means. Mr. O'Connell has been unscathed by me 
 — but he has fallen an intellectual and political suicide by the blow of 
 his own hand. (Loud cheering, and cries of " Hear.'') The moment, 
 my lord, his portentous visit was threatened against Belfast ; my duty 
 on the occasion, became matter of solemn prayer to Him who can em- 
 ploy the " Aveak to confound the mighty." And though the world Avas 
 pleased to conjecture, my secret purpose rested in my own breast 
 breathed to none but to God ; and it was not till I saw my duty iu 
 what I judged ihe leadings of Providence, tcmninating with the ex- 
 pressed opinions of men of God — that I finally determined to meet the 
 giant, who has so often and so loudly defied the armies of the living 
 God. (Cheers.) I did believe, my lord, whatever others may say, 
 I did believe that, in 1841, I saw the fearful shadow of 1641. (Hear, 
 hear, hear.) I saw the circumstances merely so far changed, that, in 
 1641, physical force marched in the van of rebellion and massacre; 
 but, in 1841, intellect and eloquence, enlisting argiiment, prejudice, and 
 passion, advanced iu the front, to mark and to cover the array of phy- 
 sical force that fearfully gathered behind. (Hear, hear, hear.) I 
 judged the spirit of the terrible movement to lie in pretended appeals 
 to reason, interests, and facts. And I said, in my heart, shall we see 
 the " sword coming," and will no man give warning, and " grapple 
 with it, ere it come too nigh?" (Hear, hear, hear.) I did believe, 
 my lord, and I do still believe, that this mighty conspiracy may, under 
 Providence, be met and averted — therefore did I, all unworthily, take 
 one step in advance to meet it. My fellow-Protestants will pardon 
 my presumption, for if I know my own heart, it proceeded not from 
 vanity, but from love. (Hear, hear, and loud cheering.) I did not 
 miscalculate when I counted on Mr. O'Connell's abuse — nay, as God 
 is my judge, I did know I was "taking rny life in my hand ;" but 1 did 
 also calculate, that my life was in the hands of Him that gave it, and 
 that, if one hair of my head was molested, or one drop of )ny blood 
 spilled — were my children left fatherless, and my wife a widow — yet 
 would the event be overruled to unite .still mure closely all true I'ru- 
 
108 
 
 testant heai-ts — and that the loss of one humble and worthless man 
 mio-ht still be the salvation of our Churches and our country. (Loud 
 and vehement cheering.) I may not, my lord, overlook the newspaper 
 statement, that Mr. O'Connell has challenged me to twenty-six hours 
 of a discussion upon civil and religious liberty.* I take him at his 
 word. (Tremendous cheers.) The time, the place I leave to himself; 
 but London and Exeter-hall I take to be the best — (loud cries of 
 " Hear, hear, hear") — and I claim but one condition — the issue of 
 half the tickets. (Cheers.) And never^ by the blessing of God, since 
 truth tore the cloak off hypocricy, did man stand for such a stripping 
 as awaits you, Daniel O'Connell. (Vehement cheering.) This is no 
 braggadocio, my lord, it is the certainty of the aid of Heaven against 
 the doomed apostacy ; it is the consciovisness of the truth that lies en- 
 shrined within our Bibles and our Churches — (hear, hear, hear, and 
 loud cheers) — it is the knowledge of the falsehoods and the tyrannies 
 that lie unchained in the tomes of the Vatican, from Avhich we are pre- 
 served in our Protestant liberties, only as we are preserved in the pre- 
 sence of the foreigner of the jungle, as he paces before us, and mea- 
 sures us, behind the iron of his cage, and is tame and inoffensive — 
 because he is imprisoned. (Vehement cheering.) Oh ! for these 
 vaunted twenty-six hours, in which his deluded followers here are be- 
 ginning to boast — that Heaven might, in mercy, permit me to exhibit 
 O'Connell to the country, on " a fair stage, and no favour'' — where he 
 must speak not to his favourite mob, but to an audience of educated 
 men ; where assertion must be supported by proof, and facts must be 
 substituted for fancy. There should I exhibit him sitting this moment 
 in the councils of the land, as the transformed hero of Milton sat at 
 the ear of the sleeping Eve. So sits he whispering his dreams of 
 Repeal into the ear of the people, and infusing the poison of his Po- 
 pery into the vitals of the constitution. But as the spear of Ithiiriel 
 compelled the foul and ugly toad to start into his native satanic form, 
 so shall the history of the past, and the condition of the present com- 
 pel O'Connell to appear in form, what he is in heart — the genius of 
 knavery, the apostle of rebellion. (Hear, hear, hear, and overwhelm- 
 ing cheers. 
 
 There is another gentleman who has figured here, and whom I 
 should have left " alone in his glory ;" but that, like other cast-off ha- 
 biliments, " being of no other use to the owner," Mr. O'Connell has 
 been pleased to make him a present to Belfast. This gentleman re- 
 joices in the name of Mr. Dillon Brown. (Cheers and laughter.) I 
 know Daniel can well part with him — let him, however, first take the 
 opinion of some folks about the lobby, (a knowing laugh from the 
 M P.'s) Mr. O'Connell comprehends me. Yes, and let Mr. O'Con- 
 nell send him to one of David Stow's admirable training-schools, in 
 Glasgow, where they teach something more than letters and manners, 
 
 * It is a fact, since vouched to us by an eye and ear witness, that Mr. O'Connell's 
 challenge run in these words : — " As to Dr. Cooke, — I challenge him ! — I challenge 
 him ! ! — I challenge him ! ! ! — (Then a considerable stutter, during which he appUid 
 his hot^dker chief to his mouth, and seemed deeply puzzled to find out ivhat to say — 
 when at last he brought out) — " to a discussion of civil and religious liberty, for 
 twenty- six hours if he dare 1 1 l" Dr. Cooke has dared. Has Mr. O'Connell re- 
 deemed his pledge? Will he ? Nous verrons — but we s\iall see. 
 
109 
 
 where — Mr. O'Connell understands me — they go one step higher, and 
 then we shall consider of accepting or rejecting his present. (Loud 
 cheers.) 
 
 There is another aspirant for reforming fame, whom it were the 
 grossest injustice to pass over unnoticed. Mr. Henry Grattan, who 
 cut so great a figure in the " great" demonstration lately enacted in 
 Dublin. (Hear, hear, hear.) For one act, on that solemn occasion, 
 one shadow he was pleased to furnish of the march of "coming events,' 
 I honour him far above all competitors for " liberal" fame. Yes, he 
 seized with emblematic hand, the list of requisitionists to this vast 
 meeting — and as tenderly and as tolerantly as if he had been a born 
 child of Queen Mary, did he trample and stamp upon it amidst the 
 cheers of the "great" meeting. (Loud cheers.) "The wish was 
 father, Harry, to that thought :" and when, with iron heel, you tramp- 
 led on the names of our noblemen, clergy, and gentry, 'twas not upon 
 the names, but on their necks, you longed to tread. (Hear, hear.) — 
 And who are you, Henry Grattan ! — that thus would tread upon the 
 noblest names in all the land ? Thou feeble son of a mighty sire ! — 
 Thou vmworthy bearer of an Illustrious name ! Think you the men of 
 Ulster worms, that thus you trample them ? (Cheers.) If so, we will 
 turn! (Continued cheers.) Not in aggression, but in self-defence ; 
 and instead of our bowing to Dagon, Dagon shall bow to us, as sure 
 as he fell prostrate and broken on the threshold of his own temple. — 
 (Vehement cheers.) Yes, who are you, Henry Grattan, that thus in- 
 sultingly dares trample us ? (Cheers.) Are you not the Hotspur of 
 Coldblow-lane ?* (Hear, hear, and loud laughter.) Are you not the 
 enfranchiser of cabbage stalks ? (Cheers.) Are you not the magical 
 converter of gooseberry-bushes into green-grocers ? (Loud cheers, 
 and laughter.) I do see your image as you stand behind O'Connell, 
 with a begging placard bearing the following inscription, which I fur- 
 nish you from a new edition of a well-known poem, at once a memorial 
 of your Coldblow achievements of old, and the modern act of emble- 
 matic kindness which your heel — your heart — inflicted upon our names. 
 (Cheers.) 
 
 " Pity, kind gentJemen, friends of Juonaiiiti/ f 
 Cold blows my courage, but heats coining on. 
 See how I trample in " liberal charity" — '■ 
 A shout and a penny — and I will begone." 
 
 (Cheers and great laughter.) And, following Henry Grattan, I must 
 also begone. (No, no — go on ) I feel I cannot — I feel I need not. — 
 Before me, all unopened, lie those piles of documents, with which I 
 had hoped to overwhelm our Repeal antagonist. (Cheers.) They 
 will keep, howevei', for Exeter Hall. And whosoever desires to see 
 the Repeal question set at rest, needs only read my friend Mr. Ten- 
 nent's Anti- Repeal speech, lately republished in the columns of the Ulster 
 Times. (Hear, hear.) But I dare not move my resolutions without 
 saying one word about it. I ask, then, the great Repealer, " Pray, 
 Mr. O'Connell, did you ever see Belfast ?" (A laugli.) You say 
 
 * A famous — rather, infamous — scene of the manufacture of fictitious votes that 
 quite equalled, or, rather, surpassed any thing in Quid's Melamorphoses. I. Ovid 
 turned men into bushes and birds ; but Coldblow-lane turned bushes and cabbages 
 into freemen and voters.- 
 
110 
 
 you did not — well, that was a pity. (Laughter.) Had you but re- 
 quested me to your Cicerone, there's not a brother lion in the town 
 to which I had not introduced you. (Loud laughter.) I beg pardon 
 — there is one phtce to which even my influence would not have ob- 
 tained tl:e entree — you were emphatically tabooed from the walls of 
 the Royal College. (Loud cheers.) You have uttered one statement 
 Pvbout our students, partly true and partly false, and I love to set your 
 blunders to rights. (A laugh.)" You have said, there is no hope of 
 the Presbyterian youth of Ulster so long as " that loathsome Thoo- 
 logue. Doctor Cooke, has influence over them." (Loud cheers.) Now, 
 that there is no hopeof their becoming Repealers is, happily, one truth ; 
 but that I have influence over them is utterly untrue. No, Daniel, I 
 will tell what and who has influence over them. The Bible and its 
 principles have influence over them. (Hear, and Cheers.) The spirit 
 that descended upon Knox, who " never feared the face of clay," has 
 influence over them. (T>oud cheers and Kentish fire.) His mantle 
 has fallen around their manly shoulders, and they will never exchange 
 it for the frieze coat of Repeal. (Vehement cheering.) Yes, had you 
 approached the College, well and firmly Avas the determination taken 
 to close the gates, and defend it from pollution. (Loud cheers, in 
 which the students present took a conspicuous part.) The anniversary 
 of your visit would, to future generations, have produced a holiday ; 
 and the shutting of the gates of Derry against James would have stood, 
 not in coequal, but in instructive contrast, to the shutting of the gates 
 of our College against the invasion of a similar^ intruder. (Vehe- 
 ment and prolonged cheers, Kentish fire, and " No Surrender."') My 
 lord, I beg leave to move — 
 
 " That, looking to the numerous and solid advantages which have accrued to Ire- 
 laud in particular, and the empire at large, frorn the effects of tlie legislative Union 
 between the two countries, we have seen, with indignation and alarm, tlie recently 
 renewed efforts to effect its Repeal." 
 
 And with barely one argument shall I support my motion — look at the 
 town of Belfast. When I was myself a youth I remember it almost a 
 village. But what a glorious sight does it now present — the masted 
 grove within our harbour — (cheers) — our mighty warehouses teeming 
 with the wealth of every climate — (cheers) — our giant manufactories 
 lifting themselves on every side —(cheers) — our streets marching on, 
 as it were, with such rapidity, that an absence of a few weeks makes us 
 strangers in the outskirts of our own town. (Cheers.) And all this 
 we owe to the Union. (Loud cheers.) No, not all — for throned 
 above our fair town, and looking serenely from our mountain's brow, 
 I behold the genii of Protestantism and Liberty, sitting inseparable in 
 their power, while the genius of Industry which nightly reclines at 
 their feet, starts with every morning in renovated might, and puts 
 forth his energies, aud showers down his blessings, on the fair and 
 smiling lands of a Chichester, a Conway, or a Hill. ( Vel:ement cheers.) 
 Yes, Mr. O'Connell, we will guard the Union as we will guard our 
 liberties, and aVivance and secure the prosperity of our country. W ere 
 you to succeed in eft'ecting Repeal, we know our liberties were strangled 
 for ever. (Tremendous cheers ) Were the agitator once elevated on 
 the shouldeife of ascendant Popei'y, the " death's head and cross bones" 
 would be the emblems of liis " great-seal" — (cheers) — and refractory 
 
Ill 
 
 Reformers themselves \yould soon be haudecl over to the '• leader mer- 
 cies" of " de boys." (Cheers and laughter.) If, then, there be any 
 Jiepealer in this assembly, as I suspect there is not — (renewed laugh- 
 ter) — but if such an one there be — I ask him, as I asked O'Connell, — 
 " Have you ever seen Belfast ?" He answers, " I have seen it." Well, 
 before the Union, Belfast was a village ; now it ranks with the cities of 
 the earth. Before the Union it had a few coasting craft, and a few 
 American and West Indian ships — and that open bay, which now em- 
 braces the navies of every land, was but a desert of useless water. — 
 (Hear, hear, hear.) The centre of our town was studded with thatched 
 cottages, where now stands one of the fairest temples to the g-enlus of 
 industry and commerce. (Hear, hear, hear, and vehement cheers.) — • 
 Our merchants, then unkiTOwn, are now welcomed In every land, and 
 the energies of their Industry, and the profits of their tolls, are only 
 sui'passed by their honourable chai-acter — (loud and vehement cheers) — 
 the basis of their prosperity, and the charter of its continuance. (Con- 
 tinued cheering.) In one word more I have done with my argument — 
 Look at Belfast, and be a Repealer — If you can. 
 
 (The Rev. Doctor then retired amid the most enthusiastic cheering, 
 and loud shouts of approbation, which continued for several minutes.) 
 R. B. Bx,AKiSTON, Esq., of Orangefield, in rising to second the motion 
 said, that, when lie looked upon tlie brilliant and influential assembly 
 which now met his eye, he could not but congratulate the meeting upon 
 the display of Conservati/e stren>,4h they had made, and on the fsilure of 
 the Repeal pantomime, which had been attempted to be enacted, in this 
 town, a day or two ago. (Cheers and laughter.) The Agitator had 
 attempted to diffuse his doctrines here ; but they had found no echo, — • 
 or, if they had, it was like the celebrated Killarney echo, which when the 
 words " Repeal of the Union" were uttered, repeated only the last one, 
 "Union." (A laugh.) In this quarter of tho world, he thouglit they 
 had sufficient proof, that the Agitator's followers were {q^ and uninflu- 
 tial ; so much so, indeed, that an old saying in the South would not be 
 inapplicable to the party — " What a fine tail our cat has got !" It re- 
 called to his recollection a species of animal uhich he used to see in 
 England, during his earlier days — eight of tiiem harnessed, at once, to a 
 cumbrous waggon, and they without a bit of tail at all. After a few 
 other remarks Mr. Blackiston sat down amid rapturou-^ shouts of applause. 
 The resolution was then proposed from the Ciiair, and passed unani- 
 mously. 
 
 The Rev, H. S. Ccmming, of Ballymena, who was wormly received, 
 on rising, with a hearty response from the body of the house, to a call for a 
 "clseer for the Conservative ladies present," proposed the next resolution ; 
 
 " That we liearlily rejoice in the deep and universal impression that pervades not 
 only all denominations of Protestants in tho kingdom, but a respectable portion of 
 tbe Roman Catholic popul Uion, that Repeal is but another name for Rebellion, and 
 a flimsy cover for the contemplated dismtmberment of the empire j and that we are 
 determined, most cordially, to co-operate in frustrating the mischievous and destruc- 
 tive project, and for preserving that settlement of property which Repeal both 
 threatens and endangers, and that civil and religious liberty which it would ulti- 
 mately and infallibly destroy.'' 
 
 He proceeded to say, that he would not only act in accordance with 
 his own wishes, but would best consult the interest and convenience of 
 
112 
 
 the immense assembly before liim, by merely reading the resolution vvhicli 
 had been entrusted to him. A prominent principle in the resolution was, 
 that Repeal was but another name for Rebellion. He was anxious not to 
 be misunderstood on this point. He had ever thought that an opponent 
 was entitled to courtesy, and that we ought not to attribute motives to 
 any man which he refused to admit. He might not have understood the 
 meaning of the committee in adopting this language, but he took it to be 
 that there was a large body of men in Ireland determined, by the use of 
 every justifiable means, to resist the Repeal of the Union ; and if there 
 were, unhappily, another portion of the inhabitants resolved to effect it, 
 such a state of things might eventuate in so deplorable a catastrophe, that 
 upon the latter class must rest the blame and the guilt. This he felt 
 bound to say, to prevent misapprehension. (Great applause.) 
 
 Rev. Daniel M'Afee rose auiid loud cheers. He said he felt, at 
 that late hour of the day, it would not be proper in him to trespass on the 
 attention of the meeting. He did come prepared to say something with 
 reference to Mr. O'Coanell. What he was prepared to say, he was 
 fully prepared to demonstrate by documents he had brought with him for 
 the purpose. He would, perhaps, take another medium of laying them 
 before the public. The rev. gentleman concluded by seconding the reso- 
 lution. (Tremendous cheers.) 
 
 Sir A. Brooke, M.P. for Fermanagh, rose to propose the next reso- 
 lution and said, he felt, at that hour of the day, no apology was necessary 
 for not delaying the meeting with any observations of his, particularly 
 after the splendid specimens of oratory and argument which had been 
 advanced, and which they had heard and listened to with such unbounded 
 pleasure and approbation. After what had been said by Dr. Cooke, that 
 indomitable champion of civil and religious liberty, it would be impossi- 
 ble for him to ad(i one single argument in addition to what had been 
 already advanced to-day. He was connected witii one of the most loyal 
 counties in Ireland, and he would feel himself disgraced if he had not 
 come forward that day to countenance, by his presence and his voice, 
 the objects for which they had been called together. With the exception 
 of the counties of Down and Antrim, he believed there was no other 
 county exceeded Fermanagh in the array of Conservative gentry which it 
 could bring forward. The honourable baronet then alluded to Lord Eb- 
 rington's denouncing the Repeal agitation, and said, he could have pre- 
 vented it, but he dare not — (hear) — as he was well aware that the Go- 
 vernment was supported by the agitator. His lordship hail left the coun- 
 try and had gone to England, and the consequence was, that the Repeal 
 agitation had progressed and succeeded to a very great extent in the South 
 of Irela id. He would not detain them any longer, as the day was so far 
 gone; he would, however, congratulate them, with ail his heart, on the 
 very splendid display they had made that day. The honourable baronet 
 sat down amidst loud and protracted cheers, after moving the following 
 resolution . — 
 
 " That we have seen, with sincere satisfaction, a recent expression by the Lord 
 Lieutenant, of his officiiil disapprobation of this renewed agitation of llepeal, and 
 tliat we deeply regret that any circumstances should base prevented liis Excellency 
 from following up that declaration by active measures, siinilar to the vigorous steps 
 taken to suppress a like treaionable agitation in 1833." 
 
 Henry Richardson, E^q., of Somerset, briefly expressed his con- 
 
113 
 
 currence in the objects of the meeting, and seconded tlie motion, which 
 was unanimously carried. 
 
 Chas. Fox, Esq. late M.P. for Longford, with a few spirited obser- 
 vations, moved the following resolution : — 
 
 " That we fell it incumbent upon ourselves, to come forward, thus collectively, 
 in Older to assure her Majesty the Queen, of our loyal attachment lo her throne 
 and person, our resolution to aid her in preserving, inviolate, the integrity of her 
 dominions, as established by the Act of Union, in 1800, and thnt an hurnble ad- 
 dress, embodying these sentiments of our devotion and fidelitj', be adopted by the 
 meeting, and presented to her Majesty.'' 
 
 Sir Hervey Bruce rose and said, after the^loquent speeches they had 
 heard that day, he would not detain them by offering any observations on 
 the resolution. He felt happy to see so many gentlemen there tiiat day 
 from the county Darry. (tlear, hear.) He was sure tbe gentry of that 
 county would always sustain the high character they had so long and so 
 creditably borne. (Cheers.) He would say no more than that he felt great 
 pleasure in seconxling the resolution. (Cheers.) 
 
 iMr. Lindsay, High Sheriff of Tyrone, proposed the 12th resolution, 
 and said, he felt highly flattered in being called upon to propose the reso- 
 lution which had been entrusted to his care ; but at that late hour of the 
 evening he would not trespass upon the time of the meeting, after the 
 many able and eloquent speeches they had just heard. He could only 
 say, that he ciost cordially concurred in the ol.jpcts for whicli they had 
 been assembled — objects of such vital importance, not only to this coun- 
 try, but to the empire at large. He regretted exceedingly that Lord 
 Claude Hamilton and Mr. Corry were, owing lo circumstances, prevent- 
 ed from attending that meeting ; but he could assure them that their hearts 
 were with it, and although they were not present with them there that 
 day, they would, at all events, be at their post next week, watching over 
 their interests in tbe House of Commons. (Hoar and cheers.) I'or him- 
 self lie could only thank them most sincerely for the kind attention with 
 which they liad listened to him, and begged to assure them that lie would 
 at all limes and on all occasions be happy to join his brother Conservatives 
 in any thing that might tend to tlio u-elfsire and prosperity of Ulster; and 
 he could assure them with perfect confidence, that his luethren of the 
 Conservative county of Tyrone would be as ready and zealous as iiimself 
 in doing everything in ihcir'powcr for the good cause. (Cheers.) He 
 would now read llie resolution, and he was sure it couhi not be better 
 entrusted, than to the care of the noble lord who so ably and efficiently 
 presided over that meeting, and the noblemen and members of the lower 
 house who have signed the requisition by which this great and important 
 meeting had been convened. (Hear, hear.) 
 
 " That the address now read be adopted, and that the Most honourable tlie Mar- 
 quis of Downshire, the other Noble Lords, Members of her Majesty's most honour- 
 able Privy Council , and 3Iembers of the House of Commons, who have signed the 
 requisition for this meeting, be requested, at their earliest convenience, to present 
 the same to her Majesty." 
 
 This resolution, aftei having been seconded by John Rowax, Esq. 
 Merville, was put and passed. 
 
 The Dean of Ross proposed a vote of thanks to Dr. Cooke, and spoke 
 in the highest terms of that Rev. gentleman. He expressed in the course 
 
114 
 
 of his address, his sanction of tlie << banns of matrimony'' proclaimed a? 
 Hillsborough by the Rev. Doctor, in 1834.' 
 
 Lord Adam Loftus seconded the resolation. Passed mem con. 
 
 Captain Jones, M.P., moved, that Lord Downshire do leave the chair. 
 
 The motion was seconded by Sir R. Bateso?«, M.P., which passed 
 unanimously.. 
 
 Thomas Gregg, Esq., was then moved to the Chair; thanks were 
 then voted to the former Chairman, by Colonel Gage, seconded by John 
 M'Neile, Esq.^ and passed. 
 
 The Marquis of Downshire in returning thanks, said, he had no doubt 
 whatever, bat that, with the blessing of Providence, so influential a meet- 
 iog as that was would be productive of the best results. (Hear, hear.) 
 The sentiments expressed at that meeting, — comprisiijg, as it did, the rank 
 wealth, and respectability of Ulster, — would, he w^as certain, find their 
 way to the foot of the throne. (Loud cheers.) Before dispersing, he 
 vrould just say to the Protestants of Ireland, continue to act as they had 
 been doing hitherto — (Hear, hear) — consider it your duty never to bring 
 disgrace on the Protestant name. (Cries of hear, hear, and cheers.) 
 They liad that day exercised a constitutional privilege, in expressing their 
 views with a reference to Lord Stanley's Registration Bill, and the ques- 
 tion of the Repeal of the Union, and he had no doubt that those sentiments, 
 when circulated through the length and breadth of the land, would have 
 their due weight. (Cheers.) The noble marquis concluded by thanking 
 the meeting for the high honour they had that day conferred on him» 
 (Tremendous cheers.) 
 
 At the conclusion of these observations, this immense assemblage 
 separated. 
 
 THE DINNER 
 
 On Friday, 22d January, at six o'clock, a grand entertainment was given 
 in the Music Hall, to James Emerson Tennent and George Orr 
 Dunbar, Esqrs., Members of Parliament for the borough of Belfast, by 
 a number of their constituents. The party in the Hall itself amounted 
 to between 400 and 500 individuals of the highest respectability. An- 
 other party, for whom accommodation could not be afforded in the prin- 
 cipal room, dined in a lower apartment, and afterwards joined the assem- 
 bly. Robert F. Gordon, Esq.,, presided on the occasion. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Walker, asked blessing. 
 
 The Chairman then rose and gave, " The Queen," — " The Princess 
 Royal," — " Prince Albert ;" each of which was received with enthu- 
 siastic cheers. 
 
 The Chairman again arose and said, that the next toast he had to 
 propose was, " Her Majesty the Queen Dowager ;'' and he was sure it was 
 unnecessary to accompany it with one single observation. (Tremendous 
 cheering and several rounds of the Kentish fire. 
 
 Tune — '• Hark, the purple stream !" 
 
 " The Duke of Wellington, the greatest captain and the first statesman of his 
 age." (Great applause, and the Kentish fire, amid cries of " The Duke, the Duke 
 -^long life to him." 
 
U'o 
 
 =" Sir Robert Peel and the Conservative members of tlie House of Commons." — 
 ^Immense cheering, one clieer mor^, and the Kentish fire.) 
 
 The Chairm.\n arose, after the cheering Iiad subsided, and said, the 
 ?iext toast he had to propose was the toast of the evening. This was the 
 health of their Representatives. (Tremendous cheering, u-aving of hand- 
 !<erchi( fs, &c.) " I cannot," continued the Chairman, " but express the 
 higli honour I feel at being asked to preside over this assemblage. IVIy 
 lieart is warm in the cause of Conservatism, and in its success I have tlie 
 greatest happiness, (Great cheering.) The toast I have proposed re- 
 quires little to be said to it. Your representatives you have known ii> 
 their infancy, and in their public conduct, you know besides what they 
 deserve at our hands. (Continued cheering.) I only ask you to look at 
 the great divisions in the House of Commons, and can there be shewn 
 one instance in which either of them were absent? (Cheers.) And in 
 questions afFectinff our own town, late and early they were ever at their 
 posts. (Hear, hear.) For some months every session I have found it 
 necessary to be in London ; and, as I observed the conduct of our repre- 
 sentatives, being engaged in the mornings in committee, and in the even- 
 ings attending to the debate, I must confess tliat I felt it a happy privi- 
 lege to be one of those who returned them to Parliament. (Applause.) 
 But I am convinced tJiat at tlie present, tlieir services are but partly 
 appreciated by us. (Enthusiastic cheering.) It is when ages unborn will 
 see the position in which we have been placed, that those will be rightly 
 honoured who have taken a lead in the service of our country, (Loud 
 cheers.) When this generation has passed away, our descendants will 
 observe the nature of that bondage, under which this nation has unJiappily 
 laboured for years, and of that thraldom of Popish tyranny from which 
 we are striving to free it, (Great applause.) Look to our happy homes 
 and green vallies, as fruits of our labours. (Hear, Iiear.) The smiling 
 liills around us are monuments to the honour of Conservatives; and, in 
 •the words of the poet : — 
 
 *' While Kings in dusty darkness lie. 
 Have left a nameless pyramid : 
 Those heroes, though the general doom 
 Has swept the mighty from their tomb — 
 A mightier monument command 
 The'mountaiu of their native land." — (Cheers.) 
 
 Mr. Emerson Tennent, before returning thanks to the meeting, could 
 not resist the impulse to fully acknowledge his obligations for the terms 
 in which the Chairman had introduced that toast, in a speech character- 
 ized at once by the feeling of a gentleman — the taste of the scholar — and 
 the sentiments of the patriot. (Hear, and loud cheers.) It would be 
 either affectation or insensibility in any man to say, that his heart did not 
 swell with gratitude and pride, under the honouis which had that eveninL'- 
 been conferred upon him. It was a common thing in the small talk of 
 friends to condole with members of Parliament upon the lal>ours cf their 
 situation, and to speak as the Cliairman had done of their late hours, and 
 to days of confinement in committee-rooms, and public offices. The office 
 of a member of Parliament was, it was quite true, when fairly and faith- 
 fully discharged, one of labour and of toil : but one evening such as they 
 were now enjoying, — ouo shout of approbation, such as he had just heard 
 more than repaid him tor all his yeara of exertion, and anxiety. (Cheers.) 
 
116 
 
 One of the toasts at the Ilepeal dinner the other day was, " two honest 
 and working members for Belfast." Me wyis certain there was not a man 
 in that room now present who would not unite even with the Repealers 
 in drinking that toast ; and when Mr. O'Conaell came to redeem his pro- 
 mise, and send the Repealers a present of a representative, --whether he 
 sent them a Mr. Raphael or a Mr. Dillon Drown, — he would soon be 
 taught that no member but a " working" one need show /limself as a can- 
 didate for Belfast. (Cheers.) In the next session of Parliament, as i:i 
 the last eight or ten, Ireland seeme'' to be again likely to be the battle- 
 field of the contending parties ; and Lord Stanley's Bill and the Repeal 
 agitation would in all probability, inherit tlie attention lately bestowed 
 upon Tithe Bills and INIunicipial Corporations. (Cheers.) On the for- 
 merj he (Mr. E. T.) would be found, as heretofore, at his post in every 
 skirmish, and prepared to defend justice, and the honest elector, against 
 peijury and the usurper of his rights. (Cheers.) Whilst on the latter, 
 .if there be one representative in the House of Commons whom duty, in- 
 clination, and conviction, would more than another impel to resist the 
 Repeal of the Union to the death, it must be the members for Belfast. If 
 any man doubts the benefits of the Union to Ireland, let him only land at 
 the quays of Belfast, and drive through every winding of its manufactur- 
 ing streets ; and if he fails to discover there the fruits of the Union, it 
 must be from the same cause that prevented the Irishman from discover- 
 ing the wood — the thickness of the trees. (Laughterand cheering.) No 
 human being of ordinary intelligence can doubt the blessings that Ulster 
 has derived from the Union, who sees the forests of masts that are moving 
 in her harbour, or counts the multitudes of her factory chimneys that rise 
 in every direction, like the lofty columns of some still unfinished " Temple 
 of Industry." (Loud cheers.) It is well known to every manufacturer, 
 tiiat the grand secret of producing cheaply and successfully is not depen- 
 dent upon a mere average in wages, or in the price of fuel, or in the first cost 
 of a machine ; but upon the extent of his market, and upon the quantity 
 which he calculates on supplying. With hand labour the case is different, 
 but in a contest with machinery, the man who can dispose of 500 pieces 
 of goods whatever be the reasonable difference against him in wages or 
 fuel, can as certainly calculate on underselling the man who can dispose 
 of but 50, as he is sure to be in time undersold himself by the one who 
 can sell 5,000 Now, one glorious advantage which Ireland has derived 
 from the Union is, that it has thrown open the almost limitless markets 
 which England supplies, to be stocked by the industry of Ireland. (Loud 
 cheers.) But that is an advantage she could only enjoy so long as she is 
 au integral part of her own dominions. Undo the Union, and England 
 would have no more interest in indentifying Irish manufactures with her 
 own, than she would those of any rival on the continent. (Hear, hear.) 
 But then we shall be told by the red-hot patriots, that Irish manufactures 
 would still make their way into their accustomed markets, as they do now, 
 upon their inherent merits. No such thing. They would be kept out 
 by the some tariffs and duties that exclude those of other countries, unless 
 specially admitted by commercial treaties. But no petty nation can ever 
 make a treaty on the same advantageous terms as a great and powerful 
 one. Treaties are reciprocal — the party who asks advantages must have 
 some to offer in exchauge for them ; and what has Ireland to offer, in 
 coming for instance, to ask admission for her linen yarns to France ? 
 
117 
 
 (Hoar.) Entrland, when it v/as talked of lately, In Fiance to impose an 
 almost piobibitory duty upon them, holds her sliield over Ireland, and 
 threatens retaliation upon French produce. What retaliation could Ire- 
 land threaten, if the Union was repealed, and the shield of English inter- 
 ference withdrawn ? None. She must have unresistingly submitted to 
 her fate. (Cheers.) He (Mr. Emerson Tennent), had lately been visi- 
 ting a country, which Mr. O'Connell, in his speech on Monday last, had 
 instanced us one in which the patriots had " Repealed the Union." He 
 alluded to Belgium, which separated itself from Holland in 1830. But 
 Mr. O'Connell could not have selected a more unhappy illustration. — 
 (Hear, hear.) Belgium was a manufacturing country ; and, before the 
 revolution it had in Holland and her colonies no less than fifteen millions 
 of consumers* It was in vain, when the revolt was threatened, that the 
 manufacturers of Ghent and the shipowners of Antwerp protested against 
 it as the destruction of their trade ; the priests and the patriots could not 
 understand such arguments,— they proceeded ; they repealed the Union 
 with a vengeance ; and, in one day, they reduced the customers of Belgium 
 from fifteen millions to something less than four ! The consequence is, 
 that her maoJiinery may produce, but she has no markets in which to 
 sell; and her shipping is destroyed, because she has no colonies to which 
 to carry her produce. ( Hear.) She has, for the last few years been turn- 
 ing iu despair to every quarter for relief, seeking treaties of commerce 
 which no country will grant, because Belgium can only take advantage 
 from them, but can offer none in return. (Hear, hear.) Her population 
 are manufacturers without markets, and merchants without commerce. 
 France shuns her, Germany refuses every effort at alliance with her ; 
 and, at the present moment, nine-tenths of her population are anxious 
 for a restoration of the Union, and a return of the blessings they enjoyed 
 under the protection of Holland. So much for Mr. O'Connell's example 
 for Ireland — so much for the prospects of Irish manufactures under a 
 Repeal of the Union. (Loud cheers.) Now look to t!ie prospect of Irish 
 agriculture ! At the present moment England consumes of our corn 
 and cattle, our wheat and oatmeal, what amounts year by year to the 
 enormous sum of between 10 and 12 millions sterling. (Cheers.) Were 
 we a separate and independent nation, England might then just as well 
 take this amount from the continent as from us ; and if she could get it 
 on more advantageous terms she would do so in one instant. (Loud 
 cheers.) This must be one of the calculations of Mr. O'Connell. He 
 must know in his heart that the manifold advantages which the Irish 
 farmer derives from the English consumers would not survive the Union 
 an hour — (hear, hear) — and hence in order to disembarrass himself of 
 that argument against him, he wishes now to abolish them by anticipa- 
 tion. This can be the only object he has in view in opposing the corn- 
 laws in the House of Commons ; and he (Mr. E. T.) defied the ingenu- 
 ity of man to reconcile the effects of the Repeal of the Union with the 
 continuance; for a single day, of that preference whicli the Irish produce 
 now enjoys in the markets of England, all the l)lessings of which would 
 expire with the first breath of separation. (Hear, hear, hear, and loud 
 cheers.) The most formidable feature in the present agitation for Repeal, 
 is tlie negative indifierence of the Government, who have as yet taken no 
 one positive step to discourage or check it. (Cheers.) Their situation is, 
 it is true, ouc of extreme embarrassment, to men who feel themselves 
 
118 
 
 indebted for their power to an unlawful source. (Hear, Lear.) To inter- 
 pose vigorously and effectually for its suppression, to declare authorita- 
 tively the fomentation of Repeal to be treason to the Queen's autho- 
 rity, and to punish it as such, would be at once to sever all connexion 
 between them and Mr. O'Connell, and to convert his support in the House 
 of Commons into an instant opposition, the effect of which would be fatal 
 to their official existence. (Hear, hear, and long cheers.) Some years 
 ago a trial took place in the South of Ireland, the issue of which created 
 some astonishment at the time. A maj was tried for murder, under the 
 most clear and convicting circumstances, the crime was almos' admitted, 
 and the evidence was irresistable, so much so, that it was with surprise 
 that the Court found that the jury wished to retire at all to consider 
 of their verdict; but they were still amazed when they found that 
 they could not agree upon it owing to the obstinate resistance of one 
 man, who held out against the other eleven ; and, ultimately at the close 
 of the Assizes, the jury was discharged, and the proceedings quashed. 
 Some time after, this tenacious juror was met by an intimate friend, who 
 could take the liberty of asking him in confidence, " how he could possi- 
 bly, in the face of such evidence, entertain a doubt of the prisoner's guilt ?"' 
 "Doubt," said he, " I had none." "And how, then," continued his 
 friend, " could you hesitate to unite in a verdict of guilty ?" " Ah, then" 
 cried he, with incredulous impatience, " and would i/ou have me go 
 hurry the last life in my lease !" (Cheers and laughter.) He (Mr. E. 
 T.) could not but feel that Lord Melbourne and Lord John Russell stood 
 precisely in the situation of this politic juror ; they might condemn the 
 malefactor, it is true, again and again, even upon his own confession, but 
 the lease of Downing- street will expire with the verdict. (Cheers.) But 
 there is also another equally galling source of embarrassment — the pain and 
 shame of turning round to punish as traitorous criminals, the very men 
 upon whom, for the last four years, they have been showering the select- 
 ed favours and honours of th? Crown, with a full knowledge of their sen- 
 timents and feelings upon Repeal. They have already had to transport 
 for life one convicted traitor whom they had made a magistrate at New- 
 port ; and the country caimot forget, that it is not their fault that the 
 Arch-Repealer of Ireland is not at this moment a judge I (Loud cheers.) 
 The present Lord Lieutenant, warned by the dilemma in which the ab- 
 surd escapades of Lord Mulgrave have involved the Government, has 
 wisely taken a more moderate course in selecting the parties for Ministe- 
 rial favour, and has announced, that no professed Repealer need look for 
 one particle of the; patronage of the Crown. Bur, unfortunately, this 
 threat can affect only one, and that a very limited section of the Repealers. 
 He meant the hungry cormorants of the Irish bar, who have been looking 
 for assistant barristerships, and commissions of enquiry, and the charge 
 of Crown prosecutions ; and it is a good illustration of the sincerity of 
 the apostles of Repeal, to witness the talismanic effect which one single 
 threat of this nature has had upon the pure spirits of the patriot bar. In 
 the former agitation of 1833 and 1834i, they were its very springs and 
 levers — counsellor this, and counsellor t'other, were the speakers at every 
 parochial assembly ; and, by means of their harangues, they stepped from 
 the cold flags of the Four Courts, to the comfortable offices of the Attorney 
 and Solicitors General, and even to the Bench itself. The Repeal agi- 
 tation was then the high road to promotion, and the very reputation of 
 
119 
 
 having made an oration against England, was sufficient with Lord Mul" 
 grave to throw open to tlie orator the very highest offices of the State, 
 from the President of a Sessions-Court, to a seat at the Privy- Council. 
 (Loud and long continued cheering.) Lord Ebrington's timely threat 
 has operated like magic upon this patriotic class in Irela^nd. Not a single 
 *' counsellor," high or low, has since it ventured to open his lips at the 
 Corn-Exchange, or to move a resolution in all Connaught. When Croe- 
 sus was about to perish by the swords of his enemies, the legend tells us, 
 that the agony of his son, who was dumb, overcame the bonds of his 
 malady, and his voice burst forth in shouts to spare the life of his father. 
 (Hear.) But, the voice of Lord Ebrington has had a different effect upon 
 the sons of Ireland, and amidst all the agonies of their parent, it has sud- 
 denly struck them ditmh ; and nothing but a little of the wealth of Crcesus 
 himself would induce one of these sons to open his lips in her favour. — 
 (Great applause.) And hare he (Mr. E. T.) might be excused if for 
 one moment he pointed to the noble contrast which the Conservative 
 section of the Lish bar exhibited, as compared with this conduct of the 
 liberal and patriot lawyers. (Hear.) It is notorious that, with very 
 few exceptions, the talent and the learning of the Irish Bar is almost ex- 
 clusively Conservative. (Hear, hear.) The Government, aware of this 
 and conscious of the utter incapacity of the Radical and Repeal barristers 
 to fill high legal offices as they fell vacant, spared no temptation, and 
 would have spared no reward, to seduce one single Conservative 
 gentleman to join their ranks, and release them from the scorn of filling 
 office after office with their own incompetent hangers-on. (Cheers.) 
 With one solitary e.i'ception — (and that he was sorry to say, an eminent 
 one) — the whole Conservative Bar had spurned the bribe, and proved 
 themselves — 
 
 True as the dial to tlie sun, 
 Although it be not shined upon. 
 
 Lord Mulgrave's brief reign in Ireland did in this respect a service to the 
 Conservative Bar, such as long years of ordinary government, could not 
 liave rendered them. It proved their metal. Like gold in a crucible, 
 they have issued bright and unspotted from the fire ; and when it shall 
 please Providence to remove from us the scourge of Whig domination, 
 their successors will have already learned, that on the high honour and 
 integrity of the Irish Conservative bar, as upon its talents and its learning, 
 they may rely with firm and unbounded confidence. (Loud cheers.) In 
 like manner. Lord Ebrington has tried the metal of the Repeal counsellors, 
 and he (Mr. E. Tennent) was satisfied they might with propriety wish 
 Mr. O'Connell and his friends any thing other than joy upon the result 
 of the experiment. (Laughter.) But this threat of Lord Ebrington could 
 effect but a circumscribed and contemptible section of the people of Ire- 
 land. It had kept the " counsellors" out of the arena, but it could not 
 influence the priests, of the exciteable peasantry — and hence it was, that 
 the agitation was now sweeping like a pestilence through the land, and 
 invading like a cholera, even the hitherto peaceful and contented province 
 of the north. He (Mr. E. Tennent) saw around him, however, in that 
 assembly, and in the meeting of yesterday, a " board of health," such as 
 would be vigilant for the safety of the public ; and like the awful visitation 
 of 1832, he ventured to predict, that the moral cholera of the day will 
 speedily pass away and leave no trace behind, except the shudder of its 
 
120 
 
 remomhiance. (Tremendoug cheering.) It would be omitting llie part of 
 Hamlet, to allude to Mr. O'Connell's visit to Belfast, and to forbear an 
 expression of admiration at the chivalrous and gallant bearino- of the o-reat 
 champion of Protestantism in Ulster — Doctor Cooke. (Loud cheers.) 
 He (Mr. E. T*) felt by that cheer, that he awoke a chord that would 
 long vibrate in their breasts without a repetition of the touch. One only 
 observation he had to offer, upon the manner in which that challenge had 
 been met, — not by Mr. U'Connell, for he met it precisely as every indivi- 
 dual felt and prophesied he would — but by the organ of the Roman Ca- 
 tholic party, the Repeal paper in Belfast, the Vindicator, which announ- 
 ced, that it bad a butcher yead'i for Dr. Cooke, so soon as he ivas 
 disposed to discuss the question. (Loud cheers.) There was something 
 awfully significant in that intimation — it was this, so long as you are dis- 
 posed to let us have all our own way, our priests and our leader are quite 
 sufficient to carry on the " peaceful agitation ;" but we have other parties 
 in reserve so soon as it comes to an opposition. Our clergy and Mr. 
 O'Connell are sufficient to dedai<n upon Repeal, but take timely warning, 
 that it is as butchers loe mean to discuss if, so soon as you or the 
 Government are disposed to take active steps to resist us. (Loud cheers.) 
 This and similar demonstrations of violence on the part of the Repealers 
 and Roman Catholics, was the result of the insane and disgraceful servil- 
 ity with which the present ministers had flung themselves at the feet of 
 the movement party, and consented to hold office by their sufferance. 
 This had given the Roman Catholic priesthood of Ireland an over- weening 
 sense of their own importance as the direct sustainers and sole support of 
 a British Ministry, and it is the intoxication of this unexpected elevation 
 that is now exhibiting itself in their vulgar and intolerant pretensions at 
 ascendancy. (Tremendous cheering.) The grossness of their ambition is 
 however, working its own corraction — the intelligent Liberals of Belfast, 
 have already taken the alarm and withdrawn from their contaminatina; 
 alliance. Belfast was the last place in Ireland in which that unnatural 
 connexion had survived between tlie advocates of practical liberty 
 and the slaves of theoretic as well as practical intolerance. In every 
 other part of Ireland the Protestant Liberals have been making common 
 cause with the Conservatives against their common enemy. Belfast has 
 been the last, but they will yet be compelled to make their election. — 
 When some one was speaking cf some of Napoleon's marshals, who, after 
 his return from Elba, followed at first the example of Macdonald, and hesi- 
 tated to join the standard of the Emperor, but came in by degrees, and 
 attached themselves to the army along with Ney, Talleyrand coolly re- 
 marked, that the only difference between those who had come first and 
 last was. the " watches of the one party went a little slower than those of 
 the other;" — (loud cheers) — and he (Mr. E. T.) felt satisfied, that the 
 day was not far distant, when such might be said of the Liberals in Bel- 
 fast — their watches are going a little slower than ours at present ; but the 
 priests and Mr. O'Connell will speedily move the regulator, and bring 
 them up to us. (Loud cheers.) He (Mr. E. T.) would not farther in- 
 trude upon their patience, either by references to his past conduct, as their 
 representative or minutiae of his intentions for the future. (Load cheers.) 
 He could oidy say, in one sentence, that so long as he had tht; honour to 
 fill the exalted office their partiality had conferred on him, it would bo his 
 earnest desire to preserve the same undeviating course which had won 
 
121 
 
 liitn the high honours tliat showered on him that evening. [The hon 
 gentleman resumed his seat amidst loud cheers.] 
 
 Mr. Dunbar, on rising, was greeted with loud and long-continued 
 cheering, accompanied with rounds of the Kentish fire, given in the 
 most enthusiastic manner. When silence was restored, he said — Mr. 
 chairman and gentlemen, never have I addressed any assembly under 
 feelings of greater excitement than at present, for there is no man 
 who could remain unaffected by such a display as that now before us 
 — and especially by the more than cordial manner in which the senti- 
 ment given from the chair has been received. Gentlemen, I also feel, 
 that I labour under another and a peculiar difficulty, in coming be- 
 fore you immediately after my eloquent friend who has just spoken — 
 for seldom have I heard a disquisition so able — and turn what way I 
 may, I feel myself puzzled to lay hold of a topic which has not been 
 brought forward by him. If I should take, for instance, Lord Stan- 
 ley's bill, I would be at a loss to know what could be said in addition 
 to his observations delivered on a late occasion that is not familiar to 
 every one ; and, if I advert to the great and powerful Daniel O'Con- 
 nell, you will not tell me that I can reduce him to smaller dimensions 
 than those into which he has been contracted by the wand of the 
 mighty Magician of the North. In truth, gentlemen, my colleague 
 has left me little to say on general questions, but I may take this op- 
 portunity of stating, that I will never hesitate to give an account of 
 my conduct to my constituents, and that I am ready to do so in regard 
 to all matters that have arisen since I last addressed them ! but this 
 I find is altogether unnecessary, as I have substantial reasons for be- 
 lieving that you do not require it. (Hear, hear.) During the recess 
 of Parliament, I have universally met with the outstretched hand of 
 welcome in every direction, and this could not have happened had I 
 given one vote of which you did not approve. (Cheers.) 1 hold my- 
 self ready to give, at a moment's warning, a full and true account of my 
 public conduct — (cheers) — as I am conscious that I have never abused 
 my trust ; but I do not think it necessary to enter upon any vindica- 
 tion of myself, until I shall have experienced some symptoms of dissatisfac- 
 tion. In regard to a Repeal of the Union, after the powerful state- 
 ment of my friend, I need only to ask any Protestant, can he have the 
 slightest doubt as to the intentions of the parties by whom that scheme 
 is promoted ? But, were Protestants even mad enough to join them, 
 can any man believe that England, too, would be mad enough to lose 
 her right arm without a struggle ? It is vain to disguise it — Repeal 
 is only a stepping-stone to separation from England, and the religion 
 of Protestants sits not upon them like a borrowed cloak, which they 
 are ready to throw off at pleasure ; and, it is matter of congratula- 
 tion to find that many of the men who formerly opposed us on other 
 questions, are with us on this ; and, I have no doubt, that the whole 
 body will come forward to join us, should Repeal be again agitated 
 in our town, while to Derrynane itself will be extended the glorious 
 cry of " No Surrender." " Immense cheering for several minutes.) — 
 1 only ask you to call to your recollection the state of your town dur- 
 ing the past week, and does It not recal the dreadful scenes of '98 .'' — 
 Troops, cannon, and other warlike preparations were made, such as 
 have not been paralleled since the disastrous period referred to ; and it 
 
 Q 
 
122 
 
 laay be recollected, that the Protestant leaders of that time afterwards 
 admitted that, had they been successful, they would have had to fight 
 the battle over again with their own allies, and so it is at the pi'esent 
 time. (Hear, hear.) The Repeal agitation is essentially a conflict 
 between the North and the South ; and we must either resist it, or 
 permit ourselves to be put down by a dominant sectarian ascendancy. 
 (Cheers.) Our Protestans Liberals have misunderstood our opinions 
 as Conservatives ; but the more they know of us the less will our re- 
 spective differences become — it is impossible for my colleague and my- 
 self to please all our constituents ; but this I can say, that no two mem- 
 bers are better watched — I am proud that it is so, and I glory in it, 
 because I have never yet given a vote which I am unprepared to de- 
 fend. As cne of the promlnenl, topics of the day I may, in passing, 
 notice the Corn Law question ; and to the advocates of a repeal of 
 the protecting duties I would submit the query, how would they pro- 
 vide for the evil, supposing a war to break out, and all interests in t\w 
 country to be left at the mercy of a foreign government for a supply 
 of grain ? The powers thus destroyed can never be recovered, aiul 
 therefore it is utter madness to permit the introduction of foreign grain, 
 which can be raised at a rate of productive cost infinitely cheaper than 
 we can do at home. (Cheers.) The greatest consumers are our own 
 countrymen — and if this market is done away with, the best consump- 
 tion of oirr agricultural commodities is destroyed. (Cheers ) It is, 
 no doubt, a most difficult thing for any government to adjust, in a sa- 
 tisfactory manner, the differences between the manufacturing and farm- 
 ing interests ; but it is clear that we cannot, without the utmost peril, 
 be left dependent upon foreign nations for one of the prime articles of 
 subsistence. So much depends upon this question, that I could not 
 avoid taking notice of it ; but in coming here tliis evening I scarcely 
 expected to be called upon for a public speech, and I see amongst us 
 " chiels takin' notes, an' faith they'll prent them" — (laughter and cheers) 
 — though I had much rather that they had come without their appro- 
 priate arms. There is, gentlemen, disunion amongst our opponents, 
 and my intention is not to say a word that may hurt their feelings ; 
 on the contrary, I had rather conciliate them — but it is to be borne in 
 mind that Radical and revolutionary attempts have not been confined 
 to this town, or even to Ireland. (Hear, hear.) In England itself 
 Chartism prevails, and if we can, by using moderation, secure the ser- 
 vices of om" opponents — at all events, not offend their prejudices — a 
 great point will be gained ; and though troops have lately been sent 
 down to preserve the peace, yet in a little time it might be tiuly said, 
 that Belfast is the most Conservative town in the kingdom. (Immense 
 cheering.) The Liberal Protestants in this town have been badly 
 treated by their former associates ; they joined with them in struggl- 
 ing for what were called their rights, and what is the debt of grati- 
 tude that has been paid ? (Loud cries of " Hear, hear, hear.'') Were 
 the Roman Catholics ever deserted by the Liberal Protestants ? No ; 
 and an ably-conducted press, too, sustained their cause — yes, I say it 
 is ably-conducted, though I have occasionally received some rubs from 
 it — and I hope that the whole party will yet live to be convinced that 
 Conservatives are not the dishonest dogs that they thought them. — 
 (Loud cheers.) In the mean time, let us say nothing to offend them. 
 
123 
 
 and perhaps they may yet join us. (Renewed cheers.) We do not 
 ask them to give up any of their political sentiments — no such sacri- 
 fice is necessary, and I do not therefore despair of seeing many of them 
 joining us yet. In regard to the press, I do not wish to make complaints ; 
 but I have been represented as joining in a coalition with Lord Bel- 
 fast, for the purpose of ousting my honourable colleague, but it is un- 
 true — it is, in fact, a damnable lie, and one which I am sure no man 
 can seriously believe. (Prolonged cheers.) Why should I join Lord 
 1' elfast, or what could I possibly gain by it ? Who placed me in my 
 present position except the Conservatives, and could I expect their as- 
 sistance or countenance if I should join any one who was not a man 
 after their own hearts ? (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") Let the base 
 ilisinuation then be treated as it deserves, and I may remark, that I 
 have never yet met with one individual who believed it, On character 
 and character alone I stand, in contradiction to a calumny so unworthy. 
 To you I am indebted for the high position in which I have been 
 placed ; and, while 1 live, that debt of gratitude which I owe you can 
 never be obliterated. (Enthusiastic cheers) My utmost exertions, I 
 assure you, shall be put fartli in your cause, and the cause of Conser- 
 vatism in general ; and at any moment you require it, I am ready to 
 give you an account of my entire conduct. Should the day ever come 
 that I shall cease to enjoy your confidence, that moment will I replace 
 my trust in your hands, as unspotted and unsullied, I hope, as the hour 
 1 first received it. (The hon. gentleman sat down amidst tremendous 
 plaudits, and rounds of the Kentish fire ) 
 
 The •' Army and Navy," — Song, " Rule Britannia," which was received with all 
 the honours. When the olieering had subsided, 
 
 Lieut.- General Coulson rose and said, — Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
 men, in the. name of Lord Hill, the Commander-in-Chief of the Army, 
 and as, I believe, I am the senior oflScer present, I rise to return you 
 tlianks for the manner in which the toast just proposed has been re- 
 ceived. (Hear, hear, and loud cheers.) I would call your attention 
 for a moment to the latter, and I am sure you will all agree with me 
 in saying, that they have exhibited on a late occasion sufficient evidence 
 that, under all circumstances, the British Navy will sustain its character 
 and ^me, and will brook no insult. That navy has shown Europe, 
 that, though their great commander, the gallant Nelson, is no more, 
 the same spirit which animated his breast animates theirs. (Hear, 
 hear.) With reference to the army, 1 will merely add, that they will 
 always be inspired with that fervour and devoted loyalty to the throne 
 which has ever distinguished the British soldier, and which had in 
 former times led them on conquering and to conquer, under the com- 
 mand of the greatest captain of the age, the Duke of Wellington — 
 The gallant General sat down amidst loud cheers and several rounds 
 of the " Kentish fire." 
 
 The Chairman next gave — 
 
 " The Lord Primate and the Established Church." (Immense cheering, and 
 rounds of the Kentish fire. 
 
 Rev. Thomas Walker, Curate of St. Anne's Church, having been 
 loudly called upon, said — Mr. Chairman and (jentlemen, I return you my 
 cordial and hearty thanks for the manner in which you have received the 
 
124 
 
 toast of the Lord Primate and the Established Church. It would ill 
 become me to speak in commendation of that princely man, but this I 
 may be permitted to say, that his heart beats as warmly as any here 
 in the cause of Protestantism. (Great cheering.) For myseff, as a 
 minister of the Church, I can say, that I am equally with yourselves 
 attached to the Protestant cause, while it is happily not necessary that 
 1 should so much as attempt to establish the fact, that the Lord Pri- 
 mate and the Established Church deserve the confidence of every 
 Conservative. (Loud applause.) oome of you may differ from his 
 Lordship, and from the Church, in regard to Church government and 
 discipline, but on the great point of maintaining Protestantism in op- 
 position to Popery, we are all agreed. (Tremendous cheering.) We 
 are one in our determination to stand by the principles for which our 
 fathers died — the principles of the Reformation ; for, as a venerable 
 bishop of our Church once said, — " if the Reformation were worth 
 establishing, it is worth maintaining." (Renewed cheers.) This, Mr. 
 chairman and gentlemen, is the first time that I have appeared at a 
 public meeting such as the present ; and if I am asked the reason why 
 I have done so, my answer is, that I have come forward to pay a com- 
 pliment to the gentlemen on eithei- side of our worthy Chairman — to 
 both of our borough members conjointly ; and I am thankful that Bel- 
 fast has sent such men to Parliament. (Prodigious cheering.) Far- 
 ther, gentlemen, the present is a time when every man who regards 
 God as the foundation of his true happiness, is bound to come out, and 
 to express his true sentiments. (Hear, hear.) I trust not to mere 
 political flattery — and let no man so trust — but God's declared will in 
 reference to the salvation of sinners, and the unrestricted use of 
 the Bible in Christian education, are the only sure foundations of 
 civil and religious liberty to every individual in her Majesty's dor 
 minions — (hear, hear, and loud cheers) — and these are the principles 
 upon which we take our ctand. (Cheers.) Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
 men, I will not farther trespass upon your time — (cries of " go on" — 
 as I am to be followed by my brother Cooke — (tremendously enthusi- 
 astic and long-continued cheers) — and by his side we are prepared 
 to stand in the maintenance of our common cause. Gentlemen I re- 
 turn you sincere thanks for the exceedingly kind manner in which the 
 toast of the Lord Primate's health, and the Established ChuA;h of 
 this country has been receivecL (Renewed cheers, accompanied by the 
 Kentish fire.) 
 
 The Chairman again arose and said, that in proposing the next 
 toast he need not occupy the time of the meeting with any remarks. 
 These were unnecessary. He himself had filled a flowing bumper to 
 give the health of Dr. Cooke. (Deafening cheers, accompanied with 
 waving of handkerchiefs and rounds of the Kentish fire, which were 
 again, and again renewed.) Silence being restored, 
 
 The Rev. Dr. Cooke then proceeded : — Mr. Chairman and gentle- 
 men, it is so short a time since I last addressed so large a part, nay, 
 the whole of this assembly, that I do not feel warranted in occupying 
 any considerable portion of your time at present. (Go on, go on.) — 
 But, aprojyos to a dinner — Mr. O'Connell declares he fs a greater 
 faster than I am. Well that remains to be tried. (A laugh.) But, if 
 «3 have an appetite for penance, this I can say for him, that, in the 
 
J 25 
 
 three short days he has spent amongst us, we have laid on him moi'e 
 true blue Protestant penance — (a laugh) — than his father confessor 
 has ventured to impose during- the last three years. (Great cheering.') 
 In imposing this penance I rejoice to have had some share ; but I claim 
 no more merit for committing him to the lock-up house — (a laugh) — 
 in Donegall-place, than the mere parchment upon which is written a 
 conviction for breach of the game laws, or the paper upon which a 
 magistrate endorses the 'mittimus of a culprit to the jailer. (Cheering.) 
 Yes, let it not be concealed, that, with the exception of the Romish 
 Priests and their followers, all Ulster felt the insult of O'Connell's in- 
 vasion ; and, while they did not dread, they saw all the danger of the 
 50,000 sans culottes, and the hour and a half processions, and the 
 pocket-fulls of shouts — (laughter) — with which either himself or his 
 tailery threatened to honour " our village.'' (Cheers.) It was under 
 these circumstances I endeavoured to turn him from riot to reason — 
 (cheers) — from mob oratory to logic — from fiction to fact — (cheers) — 
 and, by the evidence of his moral imbecility, to demonstrate that his 
 reliance was solely upon physical force. (Hear, hear.) When I called 
 upon Mr. O'Connell to discuss the question of Repeal, it was not as a 
 politician dealing in the expediencies of government, or the financial 
 calculations of pounds, shillings, and pence ; I was emboldened to chal- 
 lenge him, in the name of the word of God and of his truth, in the name 
 cf our common and concentrated Protestantism ; and, by the blessing 
 of God, we have administered to him a lesson he will not readily forget. 
 (Hear, hear.) And yet, I fear I am wrong in that assertion. His 
 memory is failing fast. (A laugh.) What a pity he had left school 
 before the days of the learned Baron ^'^on Feinagle, so famous in the 
 department of mnemonics ! For, would you believe it, his memory is 
 so clean gone, that though, a few days ago, he. " recollected to have 
 read, in a late number of the Ulster Times, an authorised statement — 
 a statement authorised by Dr. Cooke himself — that he did not intend 
 to challenge him ;" and though, upon this cleai' " recollection," he 
 civilly pronounced me twice a liar ; yet I say, would you believe it, 
 the poor man's memory is so clean gone, that when, on Monday last, 
 the Sub-editor of the Ulster Times waited upon him, offering the file 
 of the papers, he could not " recollect" in what number he had seen it, 
 so mddestly declined attempting the search. (Hear, hear.) Yes, 
 Daniel was too busy to vindicate his veracity — (laughter) — so rolls 
 over the task to his friend, the Vindicator, who will scarce well per- 
 form that task till he has once established his own. (Cheers.) But 
 no matter — when O'Connell called me " liar,'' the "gulls shouted" — 
 a name that will stick, because they have earned it — I will not retort 
 upon him the unmannerly name he has so freely applied to me ; but, if 
 he do not vindicate his veracity, the world will say he deserves it. — 
 (Loud cheers.) Now, I will freely confess to you, that though through 
 life I have had my own small share both of " good report and of bad ;" 
 and though I perhaps feel that my faults and my infirmities were 
 justly entitled even to more of the latter than I have ever experienced, 
 yet still I feel no taste for being evil spoken of. I have no grumblings 
 after voluntary martyrdom. 1 should much rather have any man's 
 and every man's good will and good word. Yet I do most sincerely 
 thank Providence that I have never yet received a good word from 
 
126 
 
 you, Daniel O'Connell. ^Loud cheers and laughter.) No ; that is a 
 degradation never yet inflicted ; and 1 have one reasonable evidence 
 that I am becoming a better man, as I find that Daniel's tongue is daily 
 becoming worse. (Cheers and laughter.) Daniel's friends are pleased 
 to accuse me of challenging their patron saint through an ambition of 
 notoriety. Well, he is indeed a wise man who knows his own heart ; 
 and I shall, therefore, make no assertions in favour of my own humility. 
 But this I will say, that the man who is ambitious of letting loose 
 O'Connell's tongue upon him, together with the hurricane of the whole 
 pack at his tail — (cheers and laughter) — has a curious ambition of no- 
 toriety ; and very much akin to the ambition of the poor hare, which 
 is said to covet the neighbourhood of the beagles, for the pleasure of 
 being hunted and eaten. (Loud cheers and laughter.) No, Sir, I 
 would not assert any thing in favour of my motives ; but I can fear- 
 lessly say, my record is with Him that " pondereth the heart.'' (Hear, 
 hear.) But one motive I may be permitted to disclaim, and one to 
 assert. I disclaim all idea of credit to myself, and I assert that, under 
 Providence, I depended on the concentrated loyalty and Protestantism 
 of the Province — of all who hold Rebellion and Repeal to be purely 
 convertible terms, and, like " Daniel" and "O'Connell," merely two 
 different names for the same "lovely monster." (Tremendous cheer- 
 ing.) But having, yesterday, inflicted upon you nearly as much penance 
 as upon Daniel himself, I do not wish again to try the metal of your 
 patience. (Cheers, go on, go on.) Well, since it is your good will, 
 let me suggest another topic of thought. And allow me to say, that I 
 never can think so well as when conscious that i have a good thinker 
 near me, from whom I can borrow a pound or a shilling's worth of 
 thought — (a laugh) — and, in this way, I believe I am so much in debt, 
 that it is useless to think of repayment — so must just go on to borrow 
 as long as my friends are generous, and, if they fail me, I shall slyly 
 work my fingers into Daniel's own budget ; and do not despair of ex- 
 tracting something to set us all a thinking. (Cheers and loud laugh- 
 ter.) Yes, we have all reason to thank Mr. O'Connell for his visit, 
 for he has compelled us all to have recourse to the history of the past. 
 I am not sure that it i s always correct to say, that 
 
 " Coming events cast their shadows before." 
 
 I feel rather inclined to say, that 
 
 " Former events leave their lessons behind." 
 
 And the history of our fathers tells us what their sons may expect, if 
 God do not nerve and arm us for its prevention. (Immense applause ) 
 But what are our only arms ? They are, first, the arms of Px-otestant 
 union, that cannot be dissolved — (cheers) — secondly, the arms of truth, 
 that cannot be gainsaid ; of resolution, of determination, that cannot 
 be shaken — (cheers) — with the loud, but unfaltering, voice of warning 
 to our beloved Queen, to beware of the traitorous designs that are 
 hatching in this land against the integrity of her empire, and the lives 
 and properties of her Protestant subjects — (hear, hear) — and, specially, 
 I mean, the arms of a free, a fearless, and unrestricted press. (Great 
 applause.) Upon what arms have our enemies hitherto relied ? No 
 doubt, in a large degree, upon the " death's-head and cross-bones" — a 
 species of Poonah painting well suited to Daniel's extemporaneous 
 
127 
 
 genius — (heai', and a laugh) — but which, as Protestant Christians, we 
 can neither study nor imitate. (Hear, hear.) But I do not hesitate 
 ta say, their main reliance has been upon simple and unadulterated 
 boasting and lying. (Hear, hear.) O Daniel ! thou professed Apostle 
 of civil and religious liberty, what is your liberty, but the liberty of 
 boasting of what you would do, and lying of what you have, or have 
 not, done, when safely ensconced in the Corn-Exchange ? (Cheers.) 
 You challenged me to discuss Popery in the newspapers : relying upon 
 God and his truth, I at once accepted the challenge — -instantly the 
 craven lowered his wing. (Groans and hisses.) Next, when safe in 
 the old shed, down street — (a laugh) — I beg pardon, in the " inmiense 
 pavilion" — (bursts of laughter) — " erected for the dinner ;" that is, 
 by the hocus pocu$ men who knocked it up some years ago, for the 
 exhibition of other animals, but who, by virtue of their art, clearly 
 foresaw to what exalted uses it- would come at last ; and, therefore, in 
 Maynooth logic, " erected" it expressly for the dinner. (Hear, and a 
 laugh.) Yes, Mr. O'Connell, when fairly ensconced in this venerable 
 hall — emblem of the foredoomed system you are pledged to cling to 
 and uphold — with crumbling bricks, tottering to their fall ; with rotten 
 wood, terror-stricken at its own gravity ; the whole shapeless mass 
 skewered up with crooked timbers, emulating and outdoing" every curve 
 and angle in Euclid's elements. (Loud laughter.) When there, you 
 thrice, in one breath, challenged me to a " six-and-tweuty hours' " dis- 
 cussion of civil and religious liberty. (Hear, hear.) Again I accepted 
 your challenge — and again you have shrunk from the meeting. (Hear, 
 hear.) But the press will brand your braggart challenging — your 
 own dupes will at last discover the intellectual cowardice it is intended 
 to conceal — (hear, hear) — and the next thing I expect to hear is, that 
 you " have registered a vow" never to change words with " the loath- 
 some Theologue" — (loud laughter) — as the only screen that Rome 
 can provide for the bully she employs to lie and to revile,' but whom 
 she dares not trust in argument with the objects of his falsehood and 
 revilings. (Loud cheering.) Thrice, Mr. O'Connell, have I attempted 
 to compel you to argument upon subjects of your own choice ; and 
 thrice have you escaped me with the slipperiness and tortuosities of an 
 eel. (Loud laughter.) But even an eel can be held, if you grasp it 
 by the neck ; and into whatever mud he may dive, and whatever twist- 
 ings he may practice, I hope yet to be able to clutch him so far above 
 " the tail" — (laughter)- — as to compel him to discover that he is a mere 
 political eel, if not an animal of the same form — far more lovely, but 
 far more dangerous. (A voice, " A serpent, I suppose.") Remember, 
 then, Mr. O'Connell, that thrice, in one breath, you " challenged" me 
 to a discussion upon " civil and religious liberty." I took you at your 
 word. (Cheering, which lasted for several minutes.) i took you at 
 your word. But what is your word worth ? PU tell you what it is 
 worth — and let the reporters faithfully send it forth — it is just worth 
 a " shout of the gulls ;" and it would not buy a pennyworth of any 
 other earthly commodity. (Great laughter.) O'Connell's promises 
 i-emind me of somewhat of the Ii'ish Boniface, somewhere near Skib- 
 bereen, to a hungry traveller, taking guage of his larder, he fairly and 
 confidentially announced " every delicacy of the season," the traveller 
 chose roast beef. Boniface disappeared to have it served up ; but 
 
128 
 
 speedily returned with a sorrowful apolog^y, that the last rib was just 
 g-one. The traveller next selected an elegant veal cutlet. Boniface 
 again disappeared, and again returned, announcing, with rueful visage, 
 that the veal, too, was devoured. A mutton chop, a roasted capon, 
 followed in like succession, until, at last, the hungry traveller exclaimed, 
 " what, what is left ?" When '■'• mine host'' confessed to as fine a rasher 
 of bacon as ever was singed in Clonmel. The traveller was glad to 
 get it ; and, if I can get but a " rasher" from Daniel, I protest I shall 
 be equally contented. (Loud cheers and laughter.) 
 
 You are aware that this honourable " gentleman," this polished scho- 
 lar — this sublime orator, has been exhibiting his genius with a pun 
 upon my name, eking to it to keep his capacity in use> what he knew 
 to be a falsehood — and seasoning it with just as much of "death's head 
 and cross bones" as he dare employ as a lawyer, without becoming liable 
 to an indictment at the Quarter Sessions. Well, I shall not imitate 
 him in all these points — for I cannot if I would, and I would not if I 
 could — (hear, hear) — but in the sublime department of punning, I owe 
 him a Roland for an Oliver, and beg to tell him what he knows right 
 well, that my " cookery" outrivals Ude in dressing a calf s head, — • 
 (Immense cheers and laughter.) 
 
 In speaking to-day to my honourable friend. General Coulson, upon 
 Daniel's talent for retreat, he reminded me how that was of the utmost 
 importance even to the most successful commander ; but advised me 
 just to watch for the moment when the " hero of the hundred retreats" 
 — (laughter) — should fairly outmanseuvre himself. My fi'iend was 
 right ; and I think the time is come — (hear, hear) — I challenged him 
 to discuss Repeal — he retreated into Purgatory. (Cheers and laugh- 
 ter.) I could not follow him there. (Laughter.) But when he next 
 appeared above-ground — (laughter) — he challenged me to meet him 
 on the ground of " civil and religious liberty." And scarcely were the 
 words out of his mouth till — " fly jack and begone" — (a laugh) — and 
 away with the whole " stock, lock, and barrel" of Repeal (Mr. Dillon 
 Brown's ^^forty-guinea rifles'* inclusive) to Donaghadee — where, it 
 has been conjectured or reported, a sly Highland piper, who had watclied 
 the embarkation, struck up the appropriate air, " We'll gang nae viair 
 to yon toon.'' (Great laughter.) And believing, as I do, that whether the 
 piper so played or not, Mr. O'Connell will fulfil the 'words. I now 
 tell him, through the press — that Exeter Hall, and the time of the 
 Easter Recess, or Ascot races, will, if he choose to keep his word, af- 
 ford place and time, either to realize his challenge, or afford another, 
 but unnecessary proof, that he is either a truth-spi^aking honest man, 
 or a boasting braggart and a skulking coward. (Loud cheei's.) 
 
 Hear me, Mr. O'Connell — you challenged me in Belfast — I chal- 
 lenge you in the face of the empire. (Cheers.) I know you are con- 
 fident in your abilities — but you feel the rottenness of your cause. — 
 (cheers.) You argue for civil and religious liberty ! Like the " Amen" 
 
 * Tlie existence and price of these famous Eepeal Rifles were made known by one of 
 ihc Repeal party having forgot them in the well of a jaunting-car — and announcing the 
 fact to detain her Majesty's mail iot their recovery. They were recovered, and the 
 percussion caps thrown off from them, and some cases of pistols (quere. " Ancient 
 Pistols?") after the " peaceful conquerors " had passed through Kevvry, and bidden 
 " farewell to Ulster." 
 
129 
 
 in the tlii'oat of Macbeth, the very words would endanger strangulation 
 — (cheers) — and would so vividly conjure up before you the foul mys- 
 teries of the Confessional; and the horrid racks of the Inquisition, that you 
 would shrink from the cause you had purposed to advocate, and be- 
 come the convert of that Protestant liberty you have hitherto laboured 
 to destroy. (Cheers.) Do, do, Mr. O'Connell, undertake to demon- 
 strate that Rome " ever has been, ever can he, or ever tviU be, the pa- 
 troness of " civil and religious liberty; 'and you will do more if you 
 succeed, to establish Popery, than Leo X, by his bulls, Zetzel by his 
 indulgences, or Cajetan by his diplomacy ; or more, if you fail to over- 
 turn it, than Luther by his Bible, Cranmer by his martyrdom, or Knox 
 by his courage ! (Cheers.) But Avill you meet me ? Will you keep 
 your word ? You will not. (Cheei's.) And why will you not keep 
 your word ? Do you dread to meet me ? You do not. But the priests 
 dare not trust you. I am wrong — they dare trust you, but they dare 
 not trust Peter Dens, the Douay Bible, and a '• bitter bad'' cause, — 
 (Continued cheers.) But they say you will return to Belfast to com- 
 plete the victory, you have so gloriously begun ! Well, 1 heartily 
 wish you joy of your victory ; and I will tell the Pavilioners when you 
 return on another Repeal expedition — you will return either at the 
 " Greek Kalends" or my learned friend beside me would say — or as I, 
 an unlearned Irishman, would say — " at Tibb's eve/' that is, neither be- 
 fore Christmas, nor after it. (Loud cheers and laug'hter.) 
 
 Unhappily for yourself, Mr. O'Connell, but happily for us, you have 
 appealed to history. And it is but just to those unacquainted with 
 authorities to say — that, when you appeal to Taylor, you appeal to an 
 authority very much on a par with the memoirs of Captain Rock, the 
 Belfast Vindicator, or the word, promise, or challenge of Daniel O'Con- 
 nell, Esq., Member of Parliament for all Ireland. (Loud cheers.) — 
 And though I would not speak of Sir Henry Parnel, as classified with 
 any of these, yet when he has incautiously built upon Taylor's sand, 
 the building he has raised, however good the mason and the masonry, 
 must tumble to the ground. Now, as my friend Daniel has begun to 
 deal in history, I shall either be his customer or his merchant. As 
 his customer, I have examined some of his wares already ; and, as his 
 merchant, I shall deal "liberally" Avith him. (Hear, and a laugh.) — 
 To three periods of Popish power, with tolerance and cherishing of 
 Protestantism which he asserted — 1 yesterday helped to a fourth, and, 
 by the aid of a friend then present, 1 was also enabled to suggest a. 
 fifth. (Cheers.) Now, let me read an extract concerning one of these 
 periods, and which I am enabled to lay before the public, through the 
 kindness of my friend Mr. Macrory, by whose indefatigable research 
 in Presbyterian records, it has recently been brought to light : — 
 
 •* Attested and compared copy of a petition of Anna Griffith, relict of BIr. Tlios. 
 Murray, minister of Killileagh, in Ireland, stating, ' tliat her husband was most 
 cruelly murdered and crucified on a tree, by the most nnchristian rebels, with two 
 other gentlemen hanged with him, the one on the right hand, and the other on the 
 left; her two sons killed, and cut to pieces before her eyes ; her own body pitifully 
 bruised, maimed, and wounded in sundry parts: her tongue half cut out ; her body 
 carried away, and kept in prison, and. inhumanly used by the rebels, from whom, at 
 last, by God's merciful providence, she escaped ; all winch was testified under ihe 
 bands of the best nobles and counsellors of this kingdom j' and humbly praying 
 them to extenJ their chaiily to her, which was granted. " 5th August, 1642. 
 
130 
 
 And this is popish charity ! Aye, this is the charity of the seeond 
 period, when power was obtained by Daniel's " precursors" — (cheers) 
 — and if, since that, any change has come upon them, let the martyred 
 ministers of our land bear witness — let the sheeted dead appear to 
 yield their testimony. (Great cheering.) For myself, if I saw that 
 Kepeal was merely political, then I should not appear to oppose it, but 
 let politicians battle with it as they might. But, as ministers of the 
 Gospel, we are to be " watchmen" ever at our posts ; and the blood of 
 those committed to our charge must be upon us, if we neglect, in any 
 wise, our duty. (Great cheering.) Let, then, our ministers taking 
 the past as the mirror of the future, prepare for the time that is com- 
 ing. (Hear, hear, heai', and loud cheering.) We are not to listen the 
 gentle voice of the wolf, when it puts on the dress of the old grandame 
 to entice the child within to open the door. (Cheers.) This Mr 
 O'Connell has done all in his power to effect. (Hear, hear.) He has 
 taken up the old grandame's dress, and as far as he could he would 
 wheedle the Pratestant, Presbyterian, and Dissenter, down to my good 
 and Rev. friend, Daniel M'Afee. I should say rather up to him, for 
 Mr. M'Afee is an older coi-respondent of his than I. (Great cheering.) 
 And then, taking another step further, he would go on his knees to 
 the Orangemen, and, if he thought necessary, drinli buckets of Boyne 
 water to conciliate them. (Much laughter.) Then some farther steps 
 he'd take, would be, first, to tell lies ; second, he would get Tom Steel 
 to believe them and swear to them ; and, lastly, he'^d present Dillon 
 Brown to Belfast. (Tremendous groans and hisses.) Of all Daniel's 
 presenting, since first he made a present — (a voice, " What kind of a 
 present ?") — this is greatest. And since he is so ready and willing to 
 dispense with his friend, and, as we do not want him, and will not have 
 him, 1 shall tell him how to disposeof his jo>'oio,o-ee. There's a certain Mr. 
 Cavendish wishes greatly to meet him, and his great desire is to per- 
 suade him to certain preliminaries, in order to enable him to take a 
 part in the pistol scene in the farce entitled, " A new way to pay old 
 debts." (Great cheering.) We are not disposed to receive Mr. Dil- 
 lon Brown, and so dismissing him, I will also, with your leave, 
 dismiss myself. (Great cheers, and cries of " Go on, go on.") If I must 
 then, let me re-echo the sentiment of my kind friend who has preceded 
 me — (Mr. Walker) — if Protestants be not mad, they will be united. — 
 Great cheering, waving of handkerchiefs, and cries of " Hear, hear.") 
 With Churches holding the " unity" of the spirit's testimony, surely 
 we may fully realize the "bond of peace." (Loud cheers.) And I am 
 neither afraid nor ashamed to say, that to this imion we are called 
 by common Protestantism and by common danger. (Hear, hear.) — 
 I recollect of some one who sent an ambassador to a wise neighbouring 
 king, to request of him a lesson on government. The wise king said 
 nothing ; but taking the ambassador into his garden, he beat down 
 with a rod every tall flower in the parterre, and so dismissed him. Ar- 
 rived at home, he related what had occurred, expressing his opinion 
 that the reputed wise king was little beyond a fool. But his master 
 thought differently— so, immediately commenced cutting off the aris- 
 tocracy, or the tall flowers, convinced he could easily manage the short 
 ones. (Hear, hear.) And now ye Lansdownes, ye Devonshires, and 
 Ang-lesays, who have aided to hilch the " bad man" to his present 
 
131 
 
 bad eminence, docs he not plainly tell you, you shall not be permitted, 
 under liis regime, to hold estates in both kingdoms ? (Hear, hear.) — 
 My Lord Lansdowne would sell — but who will dare to buy ? Kerry 
 shall be a fief of the im|>erial Derrynane. (Cheers and laughter.) — 
 His grace of Devonshire shall be delivered from the troubles of Cork, 
 and the echoes of Lismore shall respond to the mellifluous squeak of 
 Richard Lalor Shiel — (Cheers) — and my Lord Anglesey shall make 
 a '^present'''' of the picturesque mountains of Carlingford to the "com- 
 pBTiionable" Mr. Dillon Brown. (Cheers.) 
 
 The next step will be to praise, to the echo, " the sturdy Presbyte- 
 rians of Ulster." Oh, how dearly Daniel loves the Presbyterians ! 
 (Loud cheers and laughter.) But how long that humour might last I 
 shall not take upon me to say. You recollect the case of a friend — " a 
 very dear friend" — of O'Connell's, some four miles from Belfast — 
 (Laughter.) Oh ! he was all that was good, better, best, with Daniel, 
 as long as it suited his purpose. (Hear, hoar.) But Daniel's good 
 opinion, like the short-lived flower, one colour in the morning another 
 in the evening — or, to be more dignified and classical — his good opi- 
 nion, " like lobster boiled — (laughter) — from black to red began to 
 turn ;" and now, if thei'o be one Presbyterian whose image more haunts 
 Daniel's waking dreams than the '^ pale-faced man"' before you — 
 (cheers) — it is a certain tall gentleman, some six feet four, whom 
 Daniel, by word or letter, never wishes to recognize ; but whom he 
 sometimes thinks of as a resident near the picturesque village of Duii- 
 murry. (Cheers and laughter.) Now, after the Presbyterians have 
 been sufficiently praised, the next step would be to take them into a 
 kind of confidence and counsel. (Hear, hear, hear.) These bishops, 
 it would be said to them, ai-e of no use ; neither are these curates nor 
 rectors — let us just unite to give them the " wheel about ;" and then 
 we'll just have ould Ireland to ourselves, and the half of Ennlshowen 
 for a potato garden. (Loud laughter and cheers ) But the Presby- 
 terians are not such "gulls" as to be deluded thus. (Tremendous 
 cheering, waving of handkerchiefs, and cries of " never, never, never.") 
 They know what would be their fate ; they remember the Cyclops in 
 the cave. Daniel would fatten me till my pale face became rosy as his 
 own, and, like another Ulysses, I should be spared till so fattened, that I 
 might be eaten last. (Hear, hear.) The Liberals, too, would fall. 
 Once the highest flowers were knocked oft', the lowest would not long 
 be spared. (Great applause.) Pve but one more point to notice, and 
 1 have done. It is said of Constantine the Great, that, in one of his 
 marches, in vision he beheld on the sun a cross, and bearing this motto, 
 " 7« hoc signo vinces." (Hear, hear.) So, also, seizing on the cross 
 of Christ, you'll conquer — not by intellect, or intelligence, or zeal, but 
 by the spirit of our God — our fathers' God, (Applause.) But, the 
 cross represents union, while it seals the reconciliation between God 
 and man. We'll stand, like Luther, so long as this Protestant kingdom 
 stands, upholding that doctrine which he declared to be the sign of a 
 standing or a falling Church — the doctrine of justification by faith, 
 with humble hearts and uplifted hands. " By the Cross of Christ 
 crucified to the world," and by the spirit of God " rendered meet" 
 for a better inheritance, an enduring kingdom. And if the enemy 
 should ever repeat his invasion, the Protestants of Ulster will stand 
 
132 
 
 nuited, as the pax'ts of that sad, yet glorious emblem of our reli- 
 gion to which I have referred ; and we shall meet him again, as our 
 rock-bound shores meet the waves of the Atlantic ; and though again 
 he may come in with lies, again must he go out in blasphemy. — 
 (Loud cheers.) 
 
 The Chairman then gave — 
 
 " Tlie iiealili of tlic Rev. D.iniel M'Afec,'' which was received witli the most trc- 
 memlous cheers, and the Kentish fire. 
 
 The Rev. Gentleman then came forward and said — Mr. Chairman 
 and gentlemen, I assure you I feel at a loss for words to express the 
 gratitude I feel to all present, and to the independent electors of Bel- 
 fast. I feel a difficulty in giving utterance to the language of my 
 lieart, for the very high honour you have conferred upon so humble 
 an individual as myself. I feel delighted on the present occasion, sur- 
 rounded as 1 am by men whom I consider an honour to any represen- 
 tative, and representatives who arc honoured by such a constituency. 
 1 will not trouble you with any special apology for being present this 
 evening ; it is the first time I have ever yielded to go to such a meet- 
 ing as this, although 1 have often been invited. I came, however, for 
 this purpose, namely, to show myself here as a Wesleyan minister, not 
 as a representative of that body, but as a specimen of the whole, and to 
 state that they were all united for the benefit of our common country. 
 (Loud cries of " Hear, hear.") He alluded to Lord Stanley's bill, and 
 the perjury that he has known to be committed in the South of Ireland 
 — to the visit of Mr. O'Connell to Belfast, and illustrated the eftect 
 Dr. Cooke's challenge had upon him, by an anecdote founded on a 
 fact, which took place during the miracles of Priest Hohenlohe. A 
 woman had been brought to the hospital in a fever case, and she was 
 to be cured by a miracle. The apothecary who had charg'e of the 
 hospital, being an intelligent man, suspected that she was an impostor, 
 and he told her the manner in which they cured fever was, by thrust- 
 ing a needle under the nail of the finger, and, if that did not prove 
 effective, then it was to be thrusted a little farther, and, in case that 
 did not do, then it was to be thrusted up to the knuckle, and then there 
 would be no doubt of a cure. The next morning came, and the apothecary 
 proceeded to sharpen his needle : when he had done so, and was in the 
 act of putting it in the woman said, " Oh, Sir ! I'm better.'" The apo- 
 thecary then caused her to dress herself as quickly as possible, and 
 horse-whipped her out of the place- (Hear, hear, and laughter.) In 
 the same way, Daniel O'Connell was brought here by the priests, and 
 put in his sick room, when Dr. Cooke, acting as apothecary, applied 
 the needle to his nail, but he did not horse-whip him. (Cheers.) — 
 Daniel at first said, grant us Emancipation, and all would go on well 
 — that was all they wanted. Then he said, grant us Reform, and we 
 will ask no more. (Hear, hear.) He rejoiced to know that the Libe- 
 rals of Belfast were beginning to have their eyes opened to the objects 
 of that party. The Rev. gentleman then went on to prove that all 
 their doctrines, infallibility, transubstantiation, and purgatory, led to 
 the grand object they had ever in view^ namely. Catholic ascendancy. 
 After reading for the meeting an extract from a work called the " Pe- 
 digree of Popery, or the Genealogy of Antichrist,'' he concluded a 
 lengthened speech, which we have only been able merely to notice, by 
 
133 
 
 saying, that the object of Repeal was to gain ascendancy for such errors, 
 and that Dan's object was to filch the money out of the people's poc- 
 kets. He never expected such a measure would pass. He trusted the 
 late visit which we had from him here, would be the last he will ever 
 make to the North. (Tremendous cheers.) 
 
 The Chairjian tlien proposed '• the health of the Most Noble the Marquis of 
 Donegal!.'' ,^ 
 
 Lieut.- General Coulson, on being called on, rose and said — He re- 
 gretted that the honour of responding to the health of that nobleman 
 did not fall on some one more competent to perform that pleasing task. 
 'J'he gallant General alluded to the glorious triumph that had been ob- 
 tained in Belfast over the aspiring tyrant who came here for the pur- 
 pose of agitating the Repeal question. He could assure that large 
 assembly, that Lord Donegall was as much opposed to that measure as 
 he was the advocate of Lord Stanley's bill, and there was sufficient 
 evidence of his Conservative feelings and principles, in the fact of his 
 entrusting his proxy, on all occasions, to the greatest general and most 
 profound statesman of the age — he meant the Duke of Wellington. 
 [The remainder of the gallant General's observations were lost amidst 
 the bursts of applause that ensued the mention of that name.] 
 The Chairman then gave, 
 
 " Colonel Bruen, Mr. Alexander, ami the Conservative electors of Carlow." 
 Mr. John Alexander said — Mr. Chairman and gentlemen, I beg 
 to return most sincere thanks for the honour you have done to Colonel 
 Bruen and the Conservative electors of the C!ounty of Carlow. Believe 
 me, no man deserves better of his Conservative brethren than our gal- 
 lant Colonel, who has ever proved himself our uncompromising advo- 
 cate. (Cheers.) His heart and his purse have ever been open to 
 support our glorious cause. In him we have always had a firm and 
 steady supporter, able and willing to defend us. (Hear, hear, and 
 cheers.) In Carlow we have been placed in circumstances of peculiar 
 difficulty; attacked by Popery and her assistants, superstition and per- 
 jury; but, by a determination to do our duty, by steady perseverance 
 and union ; and by a close attention to our registries for the last eight 
 years, we have now gained one of the most glorious and decisive 
 triumphs on record. We have defeated the Priests and their candidate, 
 and left them behind in the vast majority of 167. (Loud cheers.) In 
 Carlow, like our forefathers at the memorable siege of Derry, (for I 
 boast of having descended from one who took an active part in the do- 
 ings of that eventful period), like that band of patriots, we have im- 
 printed on our banner the glorious motto of " No Surrender," written 
 in characters too plain to be misunderstood. We have nailed our 
 banner to the mast, and clinched the nail on the other side, determined 
 to conquer or to die. (Cheers.) Again I beg to return my best 
 thanks for the honour you have conferred on Colonel Bruen and the 
 Conservative electors of Carlow, and for the compliment bestowed on 
 myself, in connecting my name with a body of men, than whom there 
 is not on earth a more resolute, more high-minded, or more disinte- 
 rested. (Cheers.) 
 
 The Chairman then rose and said, he would give the health 
 of " The Most Noble the Marquis of Downshirc, one of the best Land- 
 lords in Ireland.'' Received with tremendous applause, and several 
 rounds of the " Kentish fire." 
 
134 
 
 " Major Armstrong, lligli Slicriir of Fermanagh, ;ind the strangers who I.ave 
 honoured us to-night witli their presence." 
 
 Major Armstrong briefly returned thanks. 
 
 The Chairman then rose, and gave the healtli of the gentleman 
 who had been so successful in preparing and paving the way for that 
 splendid meeting. 
 
 John Bates, Esq., in returning thanks, said, he felt that on that 
 occasion he had some reason to find fault with his excellent friend, the 
 Chairman, as when he came there he did not anticipate that such a 
 mark of distinction would be conferred upon him. There was no one 
 fonder of Conservative friendship than he was ; yet, they would believe 
 him when he said that it was not to gain their applause that he had 
 taken the part he did in convening that great assembly — it was a higher 
 motive — one of duty. They had entered upon it reluctantly, but, at 
 the same time efficiently. 
 
 Mr. E. Tennent, M.P., then proposed the health of the Chairman, 
 who had so efficiently performed his duties on that occasion. (Tre- 
 mendous applause and Kentish fire.) 
 
 Mr. Gordon returned thanks, and then gave " Our next merry 
 meeting." Considerable applause ensued, and it now being twelve 
 o'clock, the meeting dispersed in the most orderly manner. 
 
 LETTER TO LORD STANLEY, ACCOMPANYING THE 
 
 PETITION. 
 
 Thp following letter, which sufficiently explains itself, was forwarded 
 to Lord Stanley, along with the Petition, agreed to at the Conservative 
 Meeting, of which a full report has been already given : — 
 
 "Belfast, Feb. 20, 1841. 
 
 " My Lorb, — I have been directed, by a resolution passed at the Great Northern 
 Meeting, held in Belfast, on the 2 1st ult., to request that your Lordship will present 
 to the House of Commons, the Petition agreed to at that meeting, in favour of the 
 principles of your Lordship's Irish Ilegistration Bill ; and I have the honour now to 
 transmit that Petition to you for presentation. 
 
 '• In order that a fiiir estimate may be formed of the importance of this Petition, 
 it is necessary that I should state to your Lordship some facts connected with it. 
 
 " The meeting at which it was adopted was a public one, convened on the Requi- 
 sition of 1607 of the Nobility, Clergy, Gentry, and Merchants, connected with the 
 North of Ireland. The Requistion avowed the opionion of those who signed it to be 
 in favor of " the principles of Lord Stanley's Registration Bill." The meeting was 
 held in the largest building in Belfast. It was admitted by the Conservative and 
 Whi-T Press, that there were more than -IjOOO persons present. Every part of the 
 building was densely filled, and not less than 2,000 gentlemen were unable to make 
 their way into the assembly, 
 
 •' The Petition which will be handed to your Lordship was unanimously adopted 
 at that meeting, and has since been signed Ijy 86,170 of the Nobility, Clergy, Gentry, 
 Merchants, and Yeomanry of the Northern Irish Counties. 
 
 " No Petition has ever been presented to Parliament which represented as much 
 of the wealth, character, intelligence, and independence of the country. It would 
 be difficult, even it time permitted, to make an estimate of the wealth of the whole 
 body of the Petitioners, or of those who attended the meeting, or of the great body 
 of merchants and manufacturers who signed the requisition, but I have selected the 
 only class of the requisitionists which admits of calculation, in order to support my 
 statement, viz., the Landed Proprietors : — 
 
 " With a view to procure an accurate estimate of the annual value of the landed 
 property represented by those who signed the Requisition. I addressed a circular 
 
135 
 
 letter (of which I beg leave to enclose a copy) to one landed proprietor, of the most 
 information and accuracy, in each County. I liave received replies to this circular 
 from eleven out of the twelve Counties over which the Requisition extended, with the 
 required information; and I have now the honour to enclose the result from which 
 your Lordship will see that the value of landed property alone in the North of Ireland 
 represented by those who have signed the Requisition is £1,665,600 per annum, 
 without including the landed proprietors who did not sign the requisition, but who 
 attended the meeting and signed the Petition. 
 
 •' To the Requisition were attached the names of 41 Peers and Noble Lords, 14 
 Right Honourable and Honourable Gentlemen, 18 Baronets, 32 Members of Par- 
 liament, 11 High Sheriffs of Northern Counties, 6 Lord Lieutenants of Counties, 
 98 Deputy Lieutenants, 335 Justices of the Peace, 237 Clergymen of the Estab- 
 lished Church, 45 Presbyterian Ministers, and 20 Clergymen of the Methodist 
 Communion. 
 
 " The Petition emanates from this great body of Irishmen, and is, in addition, 
 signed by men of all classes in society, embracing Conservatives and Whigs, Episco- 
 palians, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Roman Catholics, all of wliom have had the 
 best opportunities of forming a correct opinion on the subject ; and while their 
 views and interests on other questions differ, they all concur in approving of the pro- 
 visions of your Lordship's Bill. 
 
 " I have the howour to be, my Lord, 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " The Right Hon. Lord Stanley, M.P. I "JOHN BATES. 
 
 " London." 
 
 THIRD LETTER OF DR. COOKE. 
 
 ACCEPTANCE OF MR. O'CONNELL'S CHALLENGE FOR 26 HOURS DIS- 
 
 CUSSION OF CIVIL AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY. 
 
 In our preliminary narrative, page 33, we have stated, that, at the Pavi- 
 lion dinner, Mr. O'Connell offered to give Dr. Cooke, " not two, but six; 
 or even twenUi-six Aowr*" of public discussion " on any subject connected 
 with civil and religious liberty." This offer was well understood by 
 the audience to be little better than a " rhetorical flourish," resorted 
 to for the purpose of covering Mr. O'Connell's previous defeat ; but, 
 lest any seeming ground of glorification should remain to his discom- 
 fited adherents, Dr. Cooke willingly accepted the terms proposed, thus 
 leaving the Repeal faction without the shadow of an excuse for their 
 political cowardice. Accordingly the following admirable letter, ad- 
 dressed to Mr. O'Connell, appeared in the Ulster Times of the 2Sth of 
 January. In point of energetic vigour of style, and felicity of argu- 
 ment, it is barely excelled by the communication in which Dr. Cooke's 
 challenge to Mr. O'Connell was originally conveyed. 
 
 TO DANIEL O'CONNELL, ESQ., M.P. 
 
 Sir, — This is probably the last letter with which I shall trouble you. I beg you, 
 therefore, do not burn it as you did my first. Rather treat it like my second, and 
 read it twice — as, I trust, it contains some matters impcrtaut to yourself and your 
 country. 
 
 But, before proceeding farther, I must set myself right with the public. 
 
 In the Dublin Monitor's report of the speech in which alone you attempted a 
 reply to my challenge to a discussion of Repeal, I find these words — " He invites me 
 to a conference, and the mode he takes of conveying that invitation is, by writing 
 me the most insidting letter he could possibly pen. I had read about five lines when 
 I flung it into the fire. I am soiry for it; for had I thought it was of value I 
 
 would have kept it as a curiosity." I am happy I can gratify you with a copy 
 
 not that I believe you either like it or care for it — but that tlie public may jud^e of 
 the nature and extent of the "insults'' I was guilty of penning. For the accuracy 
 of the copy — indeed it is rather the original — I pledge my word; and I am Grateful 
 
136 
 
 to that Providence by wiiiih such an unimportant document has l)een preserved 
 
 that from the charge of offering an unmannerly insult, I may stand exonerated 
 before the public: — 
 
 " Belfast, 5th January, 1841. 
 " Sir, — As you have determined to carry the Repeal agitation into Ulster — and as I 
 hold it to be the duty of every loyal subject to give it all the legal opposition in his power — 
 I beg to inform you, that I purpose to challenge you to a public uiscussion of the ques- 
 tion in all its bearings, political and religious. 
 
 *' The challenge I intend to appear (God willing) in the Belfast Chronicle of to-morrow ; 
 and I send you this notice that you may have the earliest knowledge of my design. 
 " I have the honour to be 
 
 " Your obedient servant, 
 " To Daniel O'Connell, Esq." " H. COOKE. 
 
 Now, there's the wondrous " curiosily" you wish you had preserved — there's " the 
 viost insulting letter I could pen." Let the public jud<ie of my insult, and your 
 veracity; — but, no matter, " the gulls shouted,'' and, on the faith of your testimony, 
 I was written down "unmannerly,'' while you were echoed the very '^ pink of 
 politeness." 
 
 Perhaps you will say, you referred not to my "private, but to my first public 
 letter. If so, I shall submit the point o{ etiquette to any tiibunal of gentlemen that 
 even you may appoint; and if you find three gentlemen in the kingdom who will 
 say that, in that letter, I " insulted'' you, 1 pledge myself to the most public retrac- 
 tion, and the most humiliating apology. I'll do more. Now, that the affair is not 
 before " the gulls' for a " shout,'' but before the public for decision, i)oint out; in 
 my challenge, what you denounce as "most insulting," and I shall explain, letract, 
 or apologise, as the nature of the case may require. 
 
 But, to come to a more important point. 
 
 I have always, Mr. O'Connell, suspected you mistook your profession. Kature 
 intended you for the army. Never was the *' cedant armu tocjce'' more unhappily 
 verified than in you. Wiiy do I think so? I'll tell it you in a story, for the truth 
 of which there are living vouchers. A little before the year '98, a respected countiy 
 "•entleman received a commission to raise a corps of yeomanry for the defence of the 
 country against the impending rebellion. On ap])lyi'.:g to a wcrtiiv farmer to join 
 bis company, the reply was a question — " will it be foot or cavalry ?'' The Captain 
 
 answered .'"foot." "Ah!" replied the farmer, "I would join you if they were 
 
 cavalry." " And why, my good fellow, would you prefer the cavalry ?" " Ah !" 
 rejoined the faimer, " they're best for a retreat like." Now, it is on your powers at 
 " a retreat like' that I found my opinion that Nature intended you for a great 
 General. For, as one cf the chief qualifications of a good General, is, always to 
 secure the means of retreat, I will venture to affirm that, since the days of Nimrod, 
 in the retreating department, you stand fairly without a rival. But, let me warn 
 you, Mr. O'Connell, that, though you foiled me once — though you utterly baffled 
 the M'hole army of protests thrown in your rear by the Belfast Newsletter — still I 
 don't despair of making you my prisoner. At all events, of one thing I am certain 
 
 that I will cut f'ff your retreat upon every way but one — a road you know riglit 
 
 well ; and by whicli, if again you retire, I leave you " alone in your glory." 
 
 But, to exhibit your retreating powers to the public — You threatened to invade 
 Ulster to argue Repeal. You threatened to appear on its military frontier with an 
 agreeable coWeoe of 30,000 men — the most of them notoriously saws culottes — the 
 men who had, a few years ago, been shut out of tlie same town (Newry),by the 
 turnin'^ of the pivot bridge, and the muzzle of the cannon. You did not tell us how 
 many might accompany you to Belfast; but you gave tolerably plain indication of 
 the tvill, that with so many, is law, when you told •' tlie gulls'' in Dublin tliat you 
 could or wished you could, "fill a pocket handkerchief" with the consolidated 
 shouts that would greet you at the Linen-hall — a vaticination of yours that may 
 hereafter rank you with that brother prophet, who, for love of the Moabitish i cnt, 
 came to curse Israel, but whom Providence overruled, in spite of his covetousness, 
 to bless them. And though you should, in your usual style, call me by the name of tiie 
 animal that rebuked his "madness"' I will not be deterred from administering that 
 casti'i-alion, so long as your gigantic talents are perverted to disturb the peace of 
 this province, undermine the integrity of the empire, and threaten the stability of 
 the Protestant religion. 
 
 Now, it was to arrest your mad career of mobbing, and speeching, and shoutrng, 
 that I challenged, you to a deliberate discussion of the Repeal question, before an 
 
137 
 
 impartial and orderly assembl)'. For doing so, you said I " itisulUd" you, and o( 
 my insult the public row can judge. You called me every ill name you could 
 invent or recollect ; and, because I dreaded you woiild accuse me of wishing to 
 convert a political question into a polemical controversy, and therefore promised to 
 exclude religion ; as a consummate tactician, you turn my flank, and effect your 
 retreat with a skill that would have made Xenophon stare, at the head of the ten 
 thousand — and the " gulls shouted." Well, some one has said of a great General — 
 '* He has beaten us so often, that, at last, he will teach us to beat him;'' — and, to 
 compare the small with the great, so thought I, in my simplicity. / took you at 
 your word. I offered to discuss religion, by asserting in the newspapers, as you 
 wished, tlie errors and heresies of tiie Roman apostacy. J stand to my word still— 
 and on the same condition — viz., that you obtain for me one column, or two, or 
 more, weekly, or less frequently, in one or two Southern Romanist papers ; and I 
 now add to my proposal, that for every Romanist Southern paper you furnish me, I 
 secure to you three Northern Protestant papers. 
 
 Now, my dear Roman Catholic countrymen — and though I denounce the tradi- 
 tions and heresies whereby crafty men have deluded you, you are dear to me — con- 
 sider, I pray you, for you are admirers of courage, whether physical or mental- 
 consider, I pray you, ttie cowardice of that man who dares neither to meet mejairli/ 
 and openly on politics or religion. Let your priests and a hireling press say what 
 they will, there is something within you that tells you my proposal is fair, and, if 
 Mr. O'Connell again retreat, not merely from me, but from his own word, what 
 can you conclude but that he dreads my exposure of the rottenness of his cause? 
 And what, Mr. O'Connell, is your next retreat? Why, in Belfast there is not a 
 word whispered about my cutting off your retreat into religion ; but you are ready, 
 you say, at any time, and, I must pn sume, at any place, to discuss with me the 
 questions of civil and religions liberty, for twenty-six Hotras. And at this second 
 edition of your challenge "the gulls shouted.'' Now bear witness, ye 30,000 1!! 
 Repealers, who, for the greater convenience of hearing, were so miraculously squeezed 
 by the patent Vindicator press, into a space that never heretofore did, and never 
 again will, contain twelve hundred men, women, and children — bear witness to Mr. 
 O'Connell's challenge and pledge, and to my third, and, I trust, successful attempt 
 to cut off" his retreat. Mr. O'Connell, with joy do I accept your challenge, and I 
 undertake to demonstrate, from your Coimcilf, Bulls, Extravagants, Decretals, 
 Theological and Moral Institutes, and Biblical notes, as well as from history — bind- 
 ing myself to quote only from Romish authorities — that the religion of Rome has 
 ever been, and still is, not only adverse to, but absolutely destructive of Civil and 
 Religious Liberty. I take up your Romish gauntlet — there lies my Protestant 
 glaive. Won't you lift it, Mr. O'Connell ? What! gone again ? — another retreat? 
 —and why not? Dr. Cooke, you're a " loathsome theologue ;" I hate your insult- 
 ing pen; I abhor your " Ulster brogue;" I'll have none of your " Cookery;'' 
 don't think to " bully'' me into keeping my word ; don't think on your own dunghill 
 to crow- over me, you sleepless " Cock of the North." Patience, patience, Mr. 
 O'Connell — a truce to all this genteel talent at nomenclature. I thank you heartily 
 for the sublime pun with which you have illustrated your own wit, and for every 
 scholarly and gentlemanlike name with which you have not insulted, but honoured 
 me ; and especially I thank you for the last — " Cock of the North.'' Yes, I accept 
 the soubriquet as an omen for good, though, like your vaticinating brother, you 
 meant it for evil. It was a cock that reminded Peter how thrice he had hovered on the 
 very threshold of apostacy and ruin, and thus warned, he went out and wept bitterly. 
 And, while the work of the bag-carrying Judas was going on, the salvation of the 
 penitent was ensured. And I, Mr. O'Connell, contemptible as you affect to believe 
 me, have been privileged to utter a warning, that even not a few of the vacilating 
 *' Liberals'' have heard, while our sleeping Protestantism has been arroused to a sense 
 of danger, and the defence of those liberties and institutions, which the Judas hand 
 of Repeal would sell to our enemies for a "shout of the gulls," or another bag of 
 the "rent." Yes, Mr. O'Connell, I thank you for all the '' insulting" epitliets you 
 have applied to me ; for you honour me, when you treat my humble name witli the 
 same civility with which you treat a Stanley. But, especially for the last attempted 
 insult, I thank you, for it not only reminds me of the salutary warninir of the 
 *' Bird of Dawn,'' but also of the poetic power with which the great Master of Nature 
 has invested it; and when I think how God was pleased to own my hnuble labours 
 in concentrating the might of Ulster, and terrifying the wizards of Repeal, it reminds 
 me of the sulphurous exit of the (ihost in Hamlet, which 
 
 S 
 
138 
 
 " Faded at the crowing of the Cock ; 
 
 For then (you know) no spirits dare walk abroad; 
 No planets strike, no witch her power to charm — 
 So wholesome and so gracious are the times." 
 
 But your pitiable partizans here, taking their cue from their leaders, talk of my 
 "crowing on my own dunghill." — I pardon them the uncomeliness of the figure ; 
 but even of that, 1 will not leave them the possession. No, Mr. O'Connell; it 
 is not in Belfast I desire to meet you. And though I shrink not from Dublin — 
 the Rotunda, or the Corn-Exchange — London and Exeter-Hall should be our 
 ground of meeting. You'll retreat upon bu iness, I know. You shall not. I'm 
 behind you again. There are the Easter recess and the days of (I think) Ascot 
 Races ; on either of these occasions, 1 ofFer to meet you ; and that no obstacle may 
 be pleaded, I shall depend upon the very few friends I can muster in London, to 
 bear the whole expense of the meeting. You know, and I feel your every advan- 
 tage over me — l.ut you know and I ftel the boundless advantage of my cattse ; and, 
 by the blessing of God, upon my feeble arm, 1 trust to tear away the cloak of 
 hypocritical and mercenary patriotism, in which you are enveloped, and to expose, 
 to the horror of the nation, that horrible system of studied falsehood and mental 
 slavery, of which you are the pensioned missionary. 
 
 Yes, Mr. O'Connell, there is nothing I more cordially desire than to expose that 
 system of " enormous lying" by which Romanism and Repeal are supported. Yet, 
 at the same time, I am thankful to God, that your party are serving the cause of 
 Protcstanism by every additional volley. Tlie chief of our " Liberals" are getting 
 their eyes opened, when they read the transcendental falsehoods which the Priests' 
 organists here are every day playing — and yet absolutely continuing, without a blush, ■ 
 to walk the streets in open day. 30,000 Repealers ! — the "immense pavilion erected 
 for the dinner! ! — your graceful entry and triumphant exit ! .' l" Tut, these are all 
 but trifles to what 1 miglit gather. And, indeed, they are but trifles to the " out and 
 outer'' capacity of your own son, Charles O'Connell — at least, from the name, so I 
 take him to be. He says in a late oration in Dublin, and which, from the peculiar 
 raciness of " genteel invention" he must, as I take it, have learned from yourself. 
 He says, you had to be protected by an army from the " Orange mob, the bloody 
 blackguards'' of Sandy-rote ! " Oh 1 where was Roderick then ?'' Where was Tom 
 Steele with the 30,000 Repealers? ! ! — Terrified for the millions of Sandy-row !— 
 a little street, of a few houses, to a considerable degree occupied by Roman Catho- 
 lics, and the whole about as extensive as a back-lane in Brentford! But, then, this 
 eloquent son of yours affirms you had to be "guarded through" this redoubtable, this 
 most warlike Sandy-row, at an early hour in the morning. I'll tell Charles a secret 
 — neither you nor he had a foot in Sandy-row — neither of you ever saw it, during 
 your whole sojourn. Should this eloquent eulogy, which Mr. Charles O'Connell 
 has pronounced on the more than Grecian prowess of our modern Marathon, ever 
 be read by any citizen of London, and should this, I hope, my last letter to you, 
 ever be read there as the commentary — -what will he think, when informed, that 
 •when Mr. O'Connell and Co., stood to enact the Repeal pantomime in Belfast, 
 they were somewhat about as near Sandy-row, as a man at Charing-cross is to the 
 White-horse in Piccadilly — and what will he think of the necessity of a mighty guard 
 throughout Sandy-row, when told that he O'Connell in his triumphunt exit from 
 Belfast, went as much towards Sandy-roio as a man goes towards I'iccadilly, when 
 he gallops from Charing-cross directly over Westminster bridge 1 ! Charles, Charles, 
 you are your father's son — but I suppose " the gulls shouted." 
 
 You were "guarded through Sandy-row," says the veracious Charles O'Connell. 
 I will tell you through what you were guarded — Sandy-row lies to the west of " our 
 village,'' and you spanked away utterly unheeded, with only the loud laugh of one 
 single Belfast merchant, and at whom the exalted Thomas Steele most valiantly 
 shook his clenched fist, by way of conciliation ; and you passed by the corner of 
 Cromac and May-street, where your " cherishing'' friends had demolished the win- 
 dows of one Protestant dwelling, and by the visit of a two poimd brick-bat, had 
 re:irly killed a female member of my own congregation in another. 
 
 Believe me, Mr. O'Connell, I do not state tiiis by any way of excuse for the 
 stone thrown into the Music-Hal!, and which is said to have injured one of the 
 " lovely and the good ;'' but I do it to put an end to your tragical bluster, and to 
 remind the nation, and especially our English brethren, that the life of a Protes- 
 tant female is still a3 precious as that of a Romanist. 
 
 Mr, O'Connell! Mr. O'Connell! I must speak to you in indignant seriousness. 
 
139 
 
 If there be one thing that more thnii another should harrow the conscience now, or 
 that more than another will burn in it hereafter, it is, and it will be, tiie fearful 
 thought and recollection of having poisoned principle at the fountain-head, and, by 
 neglect, example, or encouragement, contributed to the ruin of our own cliildrcn. 
 See with what reckless audacity you have taught your son to practice your own art 
 of invention! Repent, ere it be too late. Retread the maze of imposture into 
 which you have not only run yourself, but ia which you are inextricably involving 
 your beloved offspring! I have called you a "great bad man!" Beware, or you 
 will soon l)ecome a little one. The towns of Kilworth and Annan liave afforded you 
 two ominous warnings. 1 am net superstitious. But, I tell you again to beware — 
 tlie hand of Providence, and not of accident, prostrated the animals before you ; 
 and, be sure, these events are but the "precursors'' of the prostration of your charac- 
 ter and your influence, if you return not by repentance to tht; utterance of truth and 
 the practices of peace. I remain, an inveterate enemy to your principles and prac- 
 tices, but a s'nccre friend to your immortal soul, 
 
 H. COOKE. 
 Belfast, 21th January, 1841. 
 
 THE O'CONNELLITE VERSION 
 
 OF 
 
 THE FLIGHT FROM BELFAST. 
 
 We cannot bring this publication to a conclusion, without a brief no- 
 tice of the almost incredible fabrications to which the Repeal party 
 have resorted, for the purpose of covering- Mr. O'Connell's ignominious 
 retreat from our Northern Metropolis. Of course, in Belfast itself, 
 and throughout the North generally, in consequence of the extensive 
 circulation of the Anti-Repeal newspapers, no deception upon a large 
 Scale could have been successfully practised ; but the manoeuvres which 
 we are about to notice were intended for districts into which 
 
 no daylight enters 
 
 But cats, bats, and badgers for ever breed," 
 
 The Vindicator, under the direction of the Priests, set the first example 
 of this monstrous system of lying, by representing the Repeal demon- 
 stration as one of the most magnificent displays of its kind which had 
 ever occurred. And here let us interpose a cursory remark upon the 
 morality of the case. Even Priests profess to admit, that the telling- 
 of a known falsehood is criminal ; but it does not appear that a similar 
 law is extended to the writing, printing, and publishing of falsehood, 
 Avhen the tendency of the latter is likely to be advantageous to the 
 eause of " Mother Church." To our laic apprehension, ho'.vever, it 
 would seem that the deliberation, with which the publishing of untruths 
 is necessarily accompanied, aggravates immensely the immorality of 
 printed as compared with spoken lies. But we forget — the off"enders 
 have in their own hands the keys of future bliss, and can let in them- 
 selves and their satellites on their own terms — hence, veracity may 
 naturally be expected to be a cheap virtue in the Repeal market ; and 
 so it truly is. 
 
 Mr. Charles O'Connell, it will be recollected by our readers, was 
 one of the parties who accompanied the Repeal Missionary on his re- 
 treat to Donaghadee, and on the following Monday, Jan. 25, he at- 
 tended a meeting of the Repeal Association, in Dublin, at which he gave,. 
 
140 
 
 in the form of a speech, one of the most cui'iously apocryphal narra- 
 tives, of the exit from Belfast, that have ever amused an intelligent 
 public. He was quite sure that the Orange mob, which interrupted 
 Mr. O'Connell's oratory at the public meeting, was composed of 
 "shirtless, waistcoatless," individuals, while he could not undertake to 
 say that they were provided with nether garments of an indispensable 
 nature ; but such was the ferocity of the " bloody blackguards," as he 
 called them, that a strong escort of Police was requisite to protect 
 Mr. O'Connell from their violence, during his passage through Sandy- 
 row on his way to Donaghadee. It happens that the moment lie left 
 the Eoyal Hotel he turned his back directly upon Sandy-row, and was 
 never once within its dreaded precincts ; but this is a point which Dr. 
 Cooke has touched with admirable effect in his third and concluding 
 letter, to which we refer our readers. 
 
 One of the excuses put forward by the Vindicator, and the other 
 Repeal organs, for Mr. O'Connell's refusal to meet Dr. Cooke in a 
 public discussion, was the necessity imposed upon the foi'mer of at- 
 tending a great meeting of Reformers at Leeds, on Thursday, the 
 2Jst January; but the fact is, he did not attend that meeting at all. 
 Some convenient obstacle arose on the way between Portpatrick and 
 Leeds — accid entail 1/, of course — and Mr. O'Connell did not enter 
 Leeds until twenty-four hours ajlei' the time appointed for holding the 
 meeting ! The obstacle aforesaid was prudent as well as accidental ; 
 for so fcxaspei'ated were the English populace at his political miscon- 
 duct, that their indignation exceeded, if possible, that of the Protes- 
 tants of Belfast, and, had he made his appearance at the period ex- 
 pected, he would have been literally drummed out of the town. 
 
 The following resolution, which was unanimously adopted at a 
 meeting preliminary to the general one already alluded to, is a power- 
 fully significant indication of the contempt which his paltry shrinking 
 from Dr. Cooke's challenge had generated in the minds of the intelli- 
 gent operatives of England : — 
 
 " Resolved — That this meeting, constitutionally representing the working classes 
 of Great Britain, is heartily in favour of a Repeal of the Legislative Union between 
 Great Britain and Ireland ; while they will not stir, aid, or join in any plan for its 
 accomplishment, recommended by Mr. O'Connell, who, while he has made it a 
 source of personal wealth, has endeavoured, by all the artful means in his power, to 
 deter England from acquiescing in the measure ; and who, though he blusters, va- 
 pours, and repeats his oft-told rigmarole to his staff, has just now refused to meet 
 Dr. Cooke, in fair discussion, upon the question, thereby proving either that he feels 
 his inability to defend it, while he must be aware, that, if successful, such a triumph 
 ■would be worth ten thousand meetings, where none are allowed to dissent from him 
 under pain of political excommunication." 
 
 Here is one of the most splendid testimonials that Dr. Cooke, or any 
 other public character, has ever received. The authors of the resolu- 
 tion above quoted expressly declare themselves to be Repealers — to be 
 men after Mr. O'Coimell's own heart ; and yet they honestly record 
 their contempt of his moral cowardice, and their high approval, on 
 abstract grounds, of the fair terms proposed by Dr. Cooke. This vo- 
 luntary declaration, on the part of avowed opponents, which declaration 
 the intrinsic power of truth alone could have induced, is infinitely more 
 valuable than the collected harvest of " golden opinions' which the 
 learned Doctor has deservedly won from all tflie rest of the community 
 
141 
 
 besides. It might have been supposed that the strongly expressed 
 opinions of the Repealers of Leeds, who must have known far less 
 respecting the realities of O'Connell's agitation visit to Belfast than 
 the Irish population themselves should naturally be expected to do, 
 would have neutralized the inventive energies of the party ; but the 
 event turned out to be far otherwise. Accordingly Mr. O'Connell, 
 after his arrival in London to attend the parllamentax'y session, delibe- 
 rately sat down and wrote, to the Dublin Repeal Association, an offi- 
 cial account of his own mission to the North, in which the following, 
 amongst other monstrous fabrications, were attested under Jiis hand 
 and signature : — 
 
 1. That more than 1,200 gentlemen, each hnYing paid half-a-gulnca 
 for his ticket, entertained'him at the dinner In Belfast, The truth is, 
 that free tickets were pressed upon Liberal Protestants ; that Roman 
 Catholic employers Induced their dependants to procure tickets ; and, 
 after all, there were not 900 men present at the dinner. 
 
 2. That " more than 600 of the lovely and the good" graced the 
 gallery with their presence. There may have been 200 females pre- 
 sent, including fish-venders, public-house keepers, and red legs from 
 Hercules-street ; but this is a subject, in regard to which the principle 
 usually called gallantry bids us to be silent. Some of the dresses were 
 wonderfully passable, considering the rank of the wearers. 
 
 3. Almost the only truth contained in this letter is the important 
 admission, that the dinner " was substantially a Repeal demonstration" 
 — but it was, " at all events, a demonstration of kindliTiess to, and cal- 
 culated to animate and cheer on the Repealer" A capital reward 
 this to the half-dozen of Liberal Protestants who attended the dinner 
 on the faith of its being a Reform, not a Repeal demonstration ! 
 
 4. It is pretended that the Pavilion could not have held the assem- 
 bled Repealers. A commonplace enough excuse this for cheating, and 
 continuing to cheat, the public out of the price of the admission tickets ! 
 It can be demonstrated that, at the time of adjournment, the Pavilion 
 would have held, as Dr. Cooke states, fully 500 persons more than 
 were actually within its walls. 
 
 5. It is asserted, by Mr. O'Connell, that the Repealers attended the 
 open air meeting, in " tens and twenties of thousands," though the 
 noise created by the Anti- Repealers was so great as to render Inaudible 
 every syllable that he uttered, even to his nearest friends on the plat- 
 form. There were not, at anytime, 10,000 persons present, and. of 
 these not more than one-third were Repealers. 
 
 6. Mr. O'Connell states, that the resolutions printed in the Vindicator 
 and reprinted, as having been proposed to the meeting, were carried by 
 overwhelming majorities. We have already said, and every man of every 
 political creed in Belfast knows, that, neither a speech nor a resolu- 
 tion could possibly be heard at the Repeal meeting, and the consequent 
 impudence of the O'Connellite allegation is therefore unparalleled. — 
 As a body, the Anti-Repealers purposely abstained from mustering 
 their forces, lest a riot should be created ; but, if abominable falsehoods 
 of this grossly villainous description are to be put in circulation, let 
 the equitable proposal of the News-Letter be adopted, and let the par- 
 ties try their respective strength at a public meeting called for that 
 
142 
 
 especial purpose. If any thing can teach the Re})ealcrs the duty of 
 telling truth, this will, and let them adopt the suggestion, if they dare. 
 7. Mr. O'Connell, in the letter referred to, has the exemplary cou- 
 rage to say, — " There never was the least intention of a procession 
 on my journey through any of the towns from Newry to Belfa'^t, nor 
 in Belfast itself." This paragraph is ingeniously worded, and, to those 
 who do not look closely into it, would convey the impression, that Mr. 
 O'Connell's visit had been originally intended to be the most quiet, 
 unobtrusive thing imaginable. No procession was to be hazarded in 
 any of thf " towns from Newry to Belfast :" but the truth is suppressed, 
 that, in the principal towns from Dublin to Newry, processions had 
 been arranged, as we have already stated in the introductory narrative, 
 while, in Newry itself, the Repeal party had made preparations for a 
 display upon a scale of absolute grandeur. The Newry Examiner, 
 an O'Connellite journal, in its publication of the 6th January, in re- 
 ference to Mr. O'Connell's advent, says — 
 
 "There will be a grand Repeal demonstration liere. A procession will meet IMr. 
 O'Connell, and escort him into Newry." 
 
 Again, in the Examiner of the 16th January, it is stated in relation 
 to the same event — 
 
 " There will be a glorious demonstration here, in despite of paltry Whigs and 
 truculent Tories — the greatest ever witnessed in Newry. Thirty thousand brave 
 men shall rally round the deliverer of Ireland, and naake the welkin ring with shouts 
 of welcome to Ulster's frontier town." 
 
 In his letter to Dr. Blake, Mr. O'Connell used the following expres- 
 sions, in regard to his arrival in Newry — 
 
 " I can be in Newry by nine o'clock, at farthest ; and giniag my friends there an 
 hour and a half for their procession^ be able to leave at half-past ten." 
 
 As a matter of merely literal, technical, pettifogging veracity, it is 
 true, that Mr. O'Connell cannot be legally convicted of encouraging a 
 procession in any town farther North than Newry ; but is it credible 
 that he would have refused in Banbridge or Dromore that which he 
 so proudly anticipated in Newry, or can it be supposed that the exam- 
 ple set in the one case, would not have been at least attempted in the 
 other ? That this was the primary intention of the faction, we have 
 the conclusive authority of the Newry Examiner for stating, as the 
 fact was, in this journal, carefully announced beforehand, that 4,000 
 Repealers would welcome Mr. O'Connell into the Orange town of Lis- 
 burn, and there present him with an address ! But this is a point to 
 which we have already referred in our historical introduction. Why 
 were the avowedly arranged processions in Drogheda, Dundalk, &c-, 
 abandoned, and why all this new-born anxiety to repudiate the very 
 idea of a processional demonstration ? 
 
 8. After the astounding and palpably wilful falsehood to which re- 
 ference has just been made, we may well be excused from all further 
 examination of the details of Mr. O'Connell's letter ; but it contains 
 one other statement, which cannot be passed over without some notice 
 of its infamous character. Mr. O'Connell has actually the worse than 
 brazen audacity to insinuate that the mob who broke some windows of 
 the Music-hall, and injured, in a slight degree, one of the ladies in at- 
 
143 
 
 tendance at the Soiree, as we Iiave already, with sincere regret, stated 
 in our historical nari*ative, were acting under the instigation of Dr. 
 Cooke ! This is absolutely too bad even for Mr. O'Connell — he would 
 not himself, on grounds of secular expediency, be a party to any such 
 proceeding — and why should he covertly try to cast odium upon an 
 opponent whom he knows to be neither ungenerous, nor destitute of 
 proper feeling, to say nothing of Irish chivalry on this occasion ? To 
 formally contradict the vile insinuation alluded to, would be, on the 
 part of Dr. Cooke, an act of highly blameable condescension, as his 
 character is too strongly established to need any testimony in regard 
 to a matter so obvious. Mr. O'Connell must have been sadly con- 
 founded, when he ventured to tax a man whom he dared not meet, 
 with conduct which his worst enemy will inevitably set down as an in- 
 vention hazarded only in a moment of utter desperation. Were Dr. 
 Cooke capable of the villainy insinuated, he is too able a tactician to be 
 guilty of it ; but what will be thought of Mr. O'Connell's hypocritical 
 thanksgiving to the Deity, that the Repealers had been too innocently 
 forbearing to commit any outrage, when the fact is reiterated, that the 
 brickbat which had nearly killed a respectable lady, a member of Dr. 
 Cooke's congregation, is preserved, and can still be exhibited at the shop 
 of the publisher of this narrative ? Violence on any side we deplore ; 
 but it is intolerable, that ]\Ir. O'Connell should intimate charges of 
 which he knows it is morally impossible that any intelligent opponent 
 should be guilty. That Dr. Cooke is not devoid of intelligence, is 
 proved by the fact of Mr. O'Connell's flying from him, while the secon- 
 dary inference is too plain to require elucidation, and, accordingly, we 
 v^ill not affront Dr. Cooke by its immediate deduction, not only from 
 the premises, but from the direct evidence of his nonplussed calumniator. 
 The service which Dr. Cooke, by his seasonable challenge to Mr. 
 O'Connell, has rendered, not alone to the Protestants of Ireland, but 
 to those of the British empire at lai'ge, and even to such Roman Ca- 
 tholic gentlemen as happen to possess property, cannot be too highly 
 estimated. A suitable testimonial to Dr. Cooke has been accordingly 
 projected — a subscription Committee has been appointed ; and, since 
 the cause is one in which all classes of British subjects are interested, 
 we are proportionately happy to announce, that the " Repulser^'' of the 
 ^^Repealer' is not likely to be permitted to retire to the modest dis- 
 chai'ge of his onerous clerical duties, without a becoming testimony of 
 public approval. For this object, a central Committee, as already 
 stated, has been established in Belfast, and local branches are in course 
 of rapid formation throughout the three kingdoms, so general is the 
 gratitude felt for the national services of Dr. Cooke, on the recent oc- 
 casion. If there be any one indifferent to this subject, let him, in the 
 words of the dramatic poet, 
 
 " Think what a blow he deals the noble cause, 
 We now stand up for" — 
 
THE NORTHERN LIGHTS; 
 
 OR, 
 
 SKETCHES m SOIGS All ABOUT REPEAL 
 
 Hitherto, delighted reader, under our jjuidance, bast thou been conducted tlirough 
 the veritable history of tlie redoutable Repealeis in Belfast. With thy permiiisioii 
 we feel we have p right to pause for a moment, and survey the ample scope we have 
 for self-congratulation. We are now an Historian. We have earned immor- 
 tality. ILxegi monumentum. Wa have recorded the touching scenes of the three 
 days of Repeal in Belfast — equal in interest to the days of the French Revolution : 
 and our History of Repeal and Retreat shall henceforward rank with the retreat 
 nf the ten thousand, and our name shall now be enrolled with that of the illustrious 
 historian thereof. We are now equal to Herodotus or Hume, Robertson or Rapin, 
 Gillies or Gibbon, Schlegel or Srnollet. Henceforward shall we repose under our 
 historical garlands ; we shall be hailed as one of the benefactors of our species ; our 
 authority shall be undisputed; and our historical performance shall be one of those 
 " which men will not willingly let die." 
 
 But, while we have thus soared to our dignified immortality, we are not strangers 
 to human feelings; and, therefore, we are not uninfluenced by that gratitude of 
 thine, O reader, which we are confident we deserve, and which, in its depth and 
 extent, maketh even more exquisite the superabundance of our exaltation. Had we 
 nothing wherewithal to rejoice ourselves but even that gratitude which we have 
 already earned, of a verity we should have ample compensation for the labour we 
 have cheerfully undergone for thy sake, in the collection and comparison of authori- 
 ties, the discovery and arrangement of rare and curious documents, and the sundry 
 and special toils we have borne in bringing to a successful termination our historical 
 performance. We say, therefore, emphatically, tliat we can calculate with certainty 
 on thy gratitude. Without resting, however, on what we have already done, we 
 intend to do more; so that, for this additional and gratuitous exertion on our part, 
 we expect — nay, we are confident — that thy benevolence to usward shall ascend to 
 the superlative degree. We have hitherto entertained thee with the strict reality of 
 the above-mentioned days — and perilous, withal. We now relax from our philoso- 
 phical severity, and we condescend to regale thee with the Romance of the History 
 of that ever-to-be-remembered epoch. 
 
 If, peradventure, reader, thou hast occasionally turned thy attention to the history 
 of Literature, thou must have found, that civil and political commotions have almost 
 invariably been the means of giving a corresponding impulse to the mind of the 
 time. We could quote, if necessary, the eras of Augustus and Elizabeth, and the 
 French Revolution, as proof. On the same principle we should expect that there 
 would be a corresponding forth-calling of intellect, in consequence of that political 
 commotion which hath of late taken place, and which hath been so faithfully.recorded. 
 Such hath been the case. The talent of the North was roused ; a new impulse was 
 given to the mind ; vast and gigantic conceptions struggled to obtain vent ; poets 
 who erst were unconscious of their powers, appeared in a multitude; lyrics and 
 elegies were flung forth ; nay, an epic was meditated, whose subject was Repeal — 
 whose hero was Dan — whose episodes were soirees — whose moml was loyalty — aud 
 whose catastrophe was defeat. 
 
145 
 
 In entering then on the pleasing task of transmitting to posterity a lihamentum of 
 the literature of that wonderful time, there are divers remarks which we would 
 desiderate to offer. We would wish it, thertforo, to be gratefully remembered that, 
 the labour and skill in collecting were astonishing; and, though it boots not en- 
 quirers to know, the sources of investigation were ample and peculiar- In sitting 
 now in our solitary dignity, encircled with the multifarious exhibitions of intellect 
 scattered around us, we desire also to register the additional honour in vvhich we 
 feel ourselves clothed, in thus being permitted to hold sublime converse with those 
 master minds by the instrumentality of their productions. We are labouring under 
 the pressing consciousness of our responsibility in venturing to make a selection. 
 We are burning to disclose the History of these immortal relics, and the Biography 
 of their authors; but above ail, inasmuch as it lieth not within our power to do so, 
 we wish to convince the world of their genuineness and authenticity. In order 
 to effect this therefore, we adventure on a solemn statement, for the truth of which 
 we stake our reputation. Be it known then too all and sundry whom it may con- 
 cern, that, with respect to the poems hereunto annexed, various sources of emen- 
 dation have been explored, numerous MSS. have been co'lected and collated, so that 
 the text of these immortal productions may be now depended upon as almost, if 
 not altogether, agreeing with the autographs themselves. After this grave declara- 
 tion, and necessary withal, we rest satisfied, that the world will feel hence forward 
 at ease, that thousands of learned conjectures will be prevented, that voluminous 
 annotations will be unnecessary, that the Editors of coming centuries shall be saved 
 a world of trouble, and that hence forward in secula seculorum, this will be regarded 
 as the only correct and genuine edition of The Repeal Anthology- 
 
 The first in time and therefore in place is " O' Connell's Warning .'^ As soon as 
 Dr. Cooke published his manly challenge to Mr. O'Connell, among those who 
 were Anti- Repealers the opinion existed, either that Mr. O'Connell would decline, or 
 if he would accept the challenge, his defeat was certain. The latter seems to have 
 been the opinion of the author of this piece. In consequence, it appeared a few 
 days afterward in the News-Letter, from which it was copied into some of the other 
 papers. It is evidently intended as a Parody on '• Lochiel's Warning." 
 
 O'CONNELL'S WARNING. 
 
 O'Connell! O'Connell! beware of the day 
 
 When Northwards you go for expected display : 
 
 For your certain discomfiture bursts on my sight. 
 
 And your clan of Repealers are scattered in fight. 
 
 Who burn to restore to our Island its crown. 
 
 Woe, woe to old Cooke, for he tramples them down ! 
 
 The ^^ loathsome" old " Theologite" gloats o'er the slain. 
 
 And the sons of Repeal are now trod to the plain. 
 
 — But hark ! through the wide preparation for war, 
 
 What note to the Southward flies fearful and far ? 
 
 'Tis the challenge of Cooke — 'tis thy omen of fate. 
 
 If Northward you move from thy Darrynane gate. 
 
 You may go to Belfast, but disaster is there. 
 
 And Repealers are showing their signs of despair. 
 
 Weep, sons of Repeal, to captivity led. 
 
 Your hopes of Repeal in the North are now dead, 
 
 And the flag of defeat o'er O'Connell shall wave — 
 
 O'Connell subdued by that heretic slave. 
 
 o'coNNELL. 
 
 Go, frighten old Ritchie, thou woe-preaching seer — ; 
 If my trip to Belfast so terrific appear. 
 Draw, dotard, around thy old wavering sight. 
 This frieze-coat to cover thy phantoms of fright ! 
 
 Ha! laughest thou, O'Connell, m}' vision to scorn 
 Old beggar of Kerry, thy bags shall be torn ? 
 Say, dreadest thou not to go wantonly forth 
 The Eagle to meet iu his home of the North ? 
 T 
 
140 
 
 Still, the shafts of all foen'en despising, he vode. 
 
 Resistless, and scattering destruction abroad ; 
 
 And now he will pounce from his e^rie on high, 
 
 Encounter him not, for thy spoiling is nigh. 
 
 Why riseth yon tent ? Why so eager and fast 
 
 Do thy worshippers hurry thy trip to Belfast ? 
 
 'Tis thy tocsin of woe, for you lience shall be driven. 
 
 Like leaves down the vale, by the tempest of Heaven ! 
 
 Oh ! foolish O'Connell, untrained for the fight. 
 
 Though Kerry-men think thee 'he peerless in might, 
 
 Cooke's lightning is waiting to blast and to burn. 
 
 Return to thy dwelling, be wise, and return. 
 
 For no foe hath before him, unconquered, yet stood. 
 
 And he'll vanquish both thee and thy frieze-coated brood ! 
 
 o'coNNELL, 
 
 Old dreamer ! avaunt ! I shall muster a clan 
 Of sturdy Repe.ilers whose object is one. 
 They are vastly profuse of then- lungs and their breath, 
 And shall roar for Repeal till the hour of their death. 
 And woe to the " Theologue !" woe to his cause, 
 When the crowds at tnc Linen-hall open their jaws ; 
 When their frieze-coated chieftain harangues long and loud. 
 From the royal balcony, that wonderful crowd, 
 All gathered and trained for that goodly display — 
 
 FRIAK. 
 
 O'Connell ! O'Connell ! beware of that day ! 
 
 For dark and despairing my sight 1 might seal. 
 
 And keep from you now what I cannot conceal : 
 
 'Tis the gloom of our friends in Belfast gives me lore, 
 
 And your coming defeat casts its shadows before. 
 
 I tell thee that Ireland's valleys shall ring 
 
 At the news of this doom I unwillingly sing. 
 
 Ay, crushed be the might of antagonist wrath, 
 
 Thou shalt hasten away on thy desolate path. 
 
 Now, floundered and vanquished, he sweeps from my sight ; 
 
 Hush, tempest of Eloquence ! mock not his flight ! — 
 
 The discussion is ended, and out from the doors 
 
 He is fled, and his party in silence deplores ! — . 
 
 But where is he gone — the defeated — oh ! where 
 
 Shall he fly from this storm of pursuing despair ? 
 
 Say, mounts he the car on which hitherwards borne 
 
 In triumph he came, but departed in scorn ? 
 
 Ah, no ; for a quicker departure is near — 
 
 He hastes to the steam-boat, which waits .at the pier. 
 
 Its third bell is tolling — Oh ! mercy, dispel 
 
 The hisses of those who the victory tell ! 
 
 Accursed be the gathering at Leeds ! Can he meet 
 
 Those men who shall hear and shall mourn his defeat. 
 
 Whose unwelcoming sighings shall burden the ga'.e ? — ■ 
 
 o'cONNELL. 
 
 Down, heartless foreboder ! I trust not the tale. 
 
 For ne'er shall O'Connell a destiny meet 
 
 So black with dishonour — so foul with retreat. 
 
 Though Cooke should defeat me, like others before. 
 
 And the cause of Repeal should be heard of no more, 
 
 O'Connell replenished with rent-gathered gains, 
 
 While the gullible taste of the people remains. 
 
 Can to Darrynane's dwelling contentedly go, 
 
 All shielded and safe from his every foe ; 
 
 And, leaving but one dweZ-stain on his name. 
 
 Soar shriven from earth, and then — what about fame ? 
 
 While such, however, seems ^to have been the opinion of that party, those of 
 another class were loud in their boastings, and sanguine in their expectations, touch- 
 ing the descent of this Repealing Avatar, and the consequences which would follow. 
 It was calculated by them, that his visit to the North would give a new impulse and 
 conglomeration to the Avalanche of revolution. The wliole body at once secme 
 
147 
 
 animated with new mental potvcrs ; and, from the additional noise of the Sibbath- 
 cveniiig oratory of Ann-street, down to the roar of the liepeal chaunts in tlie Bar- 
 rftfk-stieet tap-rooms, wc have something like an index to the golden dreamings 
 will) which they looked forward to the millennial glories of Repeal. By the kind- 
 ness of a friend, we have been able to rescue from oblivion, a lyric of that fa ra class. 
 It was sung not in one of the taverns of our town; but in a remote sheheen, where Bill 
 Flanagan, Murtagh O'Brady, Paddy M'Graw, Torlogh Mullan, had been discuss- 
 ing the glories of Repeal, and the dignity to which all and each of them might be 
 eventually raised. After divers solicitations ard sundry preparations of throat, voice, 
 and gesture, Torlogh roared out a ditty, whose structure reminds us very much of 
 an old snatch we used to hear at school, which was 
 
 " Auid bauld Baulder M'Gregor lost his dagger, 
 On Friday, among the rain ; 
 ]t"or.y auid bauUl beggar fiad auid bauld Baulder McGregor's dagger. 
 Let him restore au!d bauld Bau'dcr M'Gregor's dagger to him ag^iiii;" 
 
 In a slyleof verse somewliat similar, and with all the cuphoniousness of tlie Mun- 
 ster brogue, he sings to the iur of" T/ie Groves of Blarney ,'" a new song called 
 
 THE BLISSIN'S OF REPALE. 
 
 Assist ye Muses, my wake inviutiun — 
 
 laspire mj' ganius while now I pen, 
 The agitation through Erin's nation, 
 
 Her Parliament to restore again. 
 'Tis it, most surely, that 'ud be curin', 
 
 What we're eadurin', for many a year; 
 No Tithes nor Taxes, 'ud be to vex us 
 
 Likewise no Rints, as yees soon sUal' hear. 
 
 Och! were I Caesar, or great Belshaisar, 
 
 Or Nebuchadnaisar, who wrote of Troy, 
 Its I'd be tratin and celebratin' 
 
 The greatness thin that we 'ud enjoy. 
 Musha ! pace and pliaty, an' sweet contintmint. 
 
 Would be beyant all yees ever knew : 
 Faix we'd be vyin' with ould King Bryan, 
 
 Who bate the Dane's all, both black and blue. 
 
 Sure O'Connell's sayin' to be delayin'. 
 
 To get Repale does be mighty wrong ; 
 And if we want it, it must be granted, 
 
 Bekase, says he, we're eight millions strong. 
 Och! ivirra stnie, we'd thin appear in 
 
 The fame we're hearin' we had av yore, 
 Whin we were a nation of exaltation. 
 
 And our ould king's goolden sceptres wore. 
 
 Whin we're obtainin' an' after gainin', 
 
 The cause Dan's seekin' of great Repale, 
 Bad luck to Judge, or to Lord or Parson 
 
 Will thin be troublin' ould Granua Waile. 
 WTiow I tare an' ounties, how we'll be shoutin', 
 
 When back the Parliamint again we'll bring ; 
 An' whin nixt saisin', we will be raisin' 
 
 The great O'Connell for to be our King. 
 
 An' thin, ye Pattherns an' days av fightin'; 
 
 Whicli we delight in, again 'ud be ; 
 And our sweet clargy, the Heaven reward t'leni, 
 
 They would be guardin' us from heresy. 
 In peace wid live in, an' would be givin'. 
 
 Ourselves to coort, an' to drink and fight ; 
 W'i'd have good atin', an' fun an' tratin', 
 
 And sweet divarsion, from morn till niuht. 
 
148 
 
 We'd keep our Nation, in a situation^ 
 
 As from all furriners for to be free ; 
 They've been our ruin, an' our ondoin' ; 
 
 Since first they entered our counterey. 
 But thin the land, in which we are standin'. 
 
 They would abandon widout delay ; 
 Och ! by the powers, 'twould thin be ours. 
 
 For we 'ud banish thim beyant the say. 
 
 Now for conclusion to mv effusion, 
 
 An' for to finish what i have penned: 
 May the great Saint Austin, likewise Chrysostom, 
 
 And the Pope of Rome, upon us descend ! 
 May the Virgin Mary, who lives in glory. 
 
 Grant unto us that we nivir fail ! 
 An' may Saint Pether be our directhur — 
 
 An' thin, by gorra, we will have Repale ! 
 
 Dan, ic will be remembered, had threatened to come thirty thousand strong, aaci 
 to terrify the North by physical display. His march was to be like that of a Sove- 
 reign and a Conqueror through his provinces. The shout of reception was to be 
 caught up at Newry, and to be prolonged, in one unbroken torrent of exultation 
 from town to town, and from multitude to multitude, until at last the thousands 
 who were to meet him at Belfast would utter forth one immortalising yell of tri- 
 umph, and giv^ the finishing touch to his political apotheosis. But, alas ! alas ! the 
 hopes of earth and of earthly Agitators are vain. They are '* as the morning cloud," 
 &c. His oration was turned into mourning; his welcomings into hisses ; his blar- 
 neyings into silence ; and Dan — King Dan — the Liberator — was obliged to come 
 quietly into Belfast, rejoicing in the title of Mr. Charles, and professing the hon- 
 ourable calling of a — Ventriloquist. Hereupon, he of Banbridge — an immortal 
 Bard — did write " ane richt pleausant song," the whilk did make its compearance in 
 the Evening Mail, and goeth to the air of " Heres to themaiden of blooming fifteen.'^ 
 Here it is, and with the leave of the good author we siiall designate it — 
 
 THE MOUNTEBANK CROSSING THE BANN. 
 
 Oh, heard ye the inroad was made on the north ? 
 
 Lord Ebrington's method of reigning ? 
 Horse, foot, and artill'ry — police, and so forth ? 
 
 And Daniel's successful campaigning ? 
 
 And how Bully Dan, 
 
 That popular man, 
 In triumph — in cog sallied over the Bann ? 
 
 GRAND CHORUS 
 
 Dan— diddle— Dan ! 
 That popular man, 
 We'll sing of his triumph in crossing the Bann. 
 
 Those rigid " black north'rns" are comical folk — 
 
 They relish no Popish attacks on 
 Their faith or their fortunes ; and count it no joke 
 To be called " the Satanical Saxon." 
 So they vowed to a man — 
 That if the caught Dan, 
 They'd put him, as sure as a gun, under Bann. 
 
 GRAND CHORUS. 
 
 Dan— diddle— Dan ! 
 That popular man, 
 Who triumphed in cog., going over the Bann. 
 
 And some of them, too, have a sort of a feel 
 
 That the whole Corn-Exchange agitation 
 Contemplates sedition, and more — that Repeal 
 Means— rightly explained — Separation. 
 So they swore — to man — 
 That, if they caught Dan, 
 They'd put him and his politics both under Bann. 
 
149 
 
 GRAND CHORUS. 
 
 Dan— diddle— Dan ! 
 That popular man, 
 Had a certain dislike to be put under Bann ! 
 
 Then well bethought Dan of a bit of a plan ; 
 
 For, tho' he loved "piping and droning," 
 He had no sort of taste for a Heretic Bann, 
 
 With its consequent " grunting and groaning." 
 So he sent on his man 
 To announce that — not Dan, 
 But the mountebank Charles, was approaching the Bann. 
 
 GRAND CHORUS. 
 
 Dan— diddle— Dan ! 
 Mister Charles is the man 
 Whose mountebank tricks will get over the Bann. 
 
 * Whose carriage in green is now crossing the Bann ? 
 
 It is Charles's — the ventriloquiser. 
 There's some one inside — and in cog. It is Dan, 
 And the Bandbridgers never the wiser. 
 And thus it was Dan, 
 By a mountebank plan. 
 Escaped for the nonce being put under Band. 
 "grand chorus. 
 Dan — diddle — Dan ! 
 That popular man, 
 Disguised as a mountebank, got o'er the Bann. 
 
 We now arrive to the Mount Olympus of the proceedinf^s — The Dinner. Be it 
 remembered, then, that " the man wot does" the Vindicator, called the place of the 
 feed a Pavilion, and represented it as decorated with such gorgeous magnificence 
 that we did wonder by what Aladdin's-lamp process it could be converted, all at once, 
 from an old shingled tabernacle, where erst were exhibited the tricks of " Punch and 
 Judy'' to the " unwashed artificers,'' for threepence a-head, into a hall, pillared, and 
 festooned, and partitioned in a style of oriental glory. It was all a dream, which 
 stole over the imagination of the veracious caterer, and which, in all charity, we 
 must believe, when in a state of somnambuleney, he unconsciously scribbled, as he 
 roamed through his room, like a child at a feast, ridolent of wine and rollicking in 
 glory. Dr. Cooke called the Pavilion Ricketty Hall; and, acting on this hint, 
 one of the scoffers, in a moment of tickled excitement, did touch off the followin" 
 <vitty stave, y'cleped : — 
 
 RICKETTY HALL. 
 
 I'll sing you a wonderful song, and it's all, 
 From beginning to end, about Ricketty Hall, 
 Whose history, banquets of late, and so forth. 
 Have haloed with glory the land of the North. 
 
 Ricketty Hall is no mansion which rears 
 Its head with the hoar of some hundreds of years ; 
 Ricketty Hall is no old fashioned place. 
 Where long has resided a chronicled race. 
 
 When this mansion magnificent erewhile arose. 
 Near the Lagan's wide stream, it was made to enclose 
 The beasts of the forest, whose gambolings drew 
 Many crowds to behold and admire them too. 
 
 But that era passed by, and another one came. 
 Though somewhat less savage, yet nearly the same ; 
 For "groundlings" there gathered, to witness the rage 
 Of the heroes who fretted their time on its stage. 
 
 But, lo Triumphe I the greatest of all 
 Of the scenes which took place within Ricketty Hall,. 
 W^as the feast of Repeal, and its feeding and fun. 
 In the year eighteen hundred and forty and one. 
 
150 
 
 From the South to the North the intellif;ence passed, 
 That Dan would be fed in the town of Belfast : — 
 So, as wild beasts at gorging time, many agreed 
 That Dan to advantage wc.uld look at his feed. 
 
 So, many a Raggedness gathered to see 
 The feats gastronomic of this great M. P, ; 
 And how, after repletion, he'd waggle his tail, 
 And blarney, and bellow, and roar of Repale. 
 
 Like the lions of Amburgh, the f; sting-famed Dau, 
 
 And the whole of the hungry menagerie began ; 
 
 Yet, when feasted and gorged, not like Amburgh's they grew 
 
 For they shouted, and spouted, and growled until Two.* 
 
 So hurrah ! for great Ricketty -Hall, and each scene 
 Of wild exhibition, which therein has been ! 
 And a toast for my wonderful song, which was all. 
 From beginning to end, about Uicketty-Hall. 
 
 Such was the feed in Ricketty Hall ! Eut then Belfast was not only to l>c "-oro-cd 
 into Repeal, but a soiree was to complete the revolution, therefore, did the " lovclv 
 and the f^ood'' — the fishwives and the handmaidens of Hercules-street, and divers 
 of a similar description — assemble in all the gaudiness of their borrowed finery, and 
 present such a conglomeration of b?auty, that the heart of the chivalrie Dillon 
 Rrowne did nu-lt under the warmth and liglit of such a galaxy of concentrated splen- 
 dour. There were caitifl" Knights without, however, whose hearts were steeled ao-ainst 
 such delicate susceptibilities, and who had no sympaXhies with those throbbings of Jove, 
 or breathings of Repeal. Therefore was Dan dislurbsd — therefore was Dillon 
 Browne disturbed — therefore were the ladies disturbed — therefore was Repeal dis- 
 turbed. Oh 1 there was patting in hot baste — there were runnings to and fro — 
 there was Dan basting to his hiding-place — and there were the " lovely and the good" 
 hurrying away to their domestic duties. Hard-hearted indeed was the clever wag 
 who could indite such a piece of sarcasm anent such tender scenes. Read it and 
 judge. It is called 
 
 THE DEPARTURE. 
 
 Ko shout was head, no repealing yell. 
 
 As Dan from the Soiree hurried ; 
 For the trembling frames of the junta tell 
 
 How their hero was sadly flurried. 
 
 They stole him in, 'neath the shades of night, 
 
 To his prison, quick retiring ; 
 And they swore him out, in the morning light, 
 
 In wisdom worth admiring. 
 
 No gay procession moved along. 
 
 In Our Northern town around him ; 
 But he passed as he came, unseen, unsung, 
 
 In the frieze-coat that tightly bound him, 
 
 A few short prayers were quickly said. 
 
 But they could not banish sorrow ; 
 For the thought of Cooke, was in his head. 
 
 And much he feared the morrow. 
 
 We thought as we heard his oration read. 
 
 He had slept on a thorny pillow ; 
 But he lied like a knave, in all he said, 
 
 For he tossed like the ocean billow. 
 
 Loudly they talk of their money that's gone. 
 
 And Repealers begin to upbraid him ; 
 But he'll blarney them yet, and the rent they'll pay on, 
 
 For lies can no further degrade him. 
 
 ♦ Two oY-lock, riintcv's Devil. 
 
151 
 
 But draughts of tea had scarcely done 
 
 Their trembling hearts inspiring. 
 And the evening scarcel)' half was run. 
 
 When Dan was seen retiring. 
 
 Slowly and sadly they led him forth. 
 
 By the backward door so lowly. 
 Counting his beads, and cursing the North 
 And the " Theologue" unholy. 
 
 Yes, as that inimortal bard singeth, " the thought of Cooke was in his head, and 
 much he feared the morrow," and no wonder indeed. Turn to the pages of our 
 veritable history, and read the thrilling scene which took place at the Linen- Hall, 
 wlien the Apostle of Repeal had to encounter the loyal opposition of the sons of 
 Brown-street and Sandy-row, and Bally macarrett. Some one from the banks of 
 the Ballow, (may his name be immortal) in his own style right wittily celebrated 
 that scene. Read the song of him of Ballow which we copy from the Chronicle. 
 
 "THE BATTLE OF THE NORTH." 
 
 " Paulo majora canemus." 
 
 Of Daniel to the North 
 
 Sing the glorious posting down. 
 And how boldly he stood forth 
 
 In its first and proudest town. 
 To meet the sturdy foes of Repeal ! 
 
 With staunch members of tne " Ass — '" 
 
 To support his burly mass. 
 
 Daunt, strong in triple brass, 
 
 And Tom Steele ! 
 
 But like grampuses aground. 
 
 Writhed the leader and his men. 
 
 When an evil boding-sound 
 Of Dan's namesake in the den 
 
 Reminded them — a sound which did not chime 
 With their hopes of vic'try's wreath. 
 While the crowd look'd stern as death. 
 And the brave O' held his breath 
 For a time ! 
 
 Then the pride of Ulster flushed 
 
 To anticipate the scene, 
 And Dan had hardly brushed 
 
 With his cuif his smart caubeen. 
 And giv'n the " hem," prelusive, when a yell 
 
 From ten thousand loyal throats 
 
 Stopp'd the issue of his notes. 
 
 And the trader in frieze coats. 
 
 Heard his knell ! 
 
 Again, again, again ! 
 
 And the shouting did not slack — 
 While fiercely, but in vain. 
 
 The Repealer urged his pack. 
 To check the stunning tempest with their cheers, 
 
 But at length there came a pause, 
 
 As if friends of either cause, 
 
 Claim'd a respite for their jaws 
 
 And their ears ! 
 
 Out spoke O'Connell then. 
 
 As he. rolled Lira left and right, — 
 " You're in darkness, Ulster-men ! 
 
 And I'm come to give you light, — 
 But you carry no extinguishers, 1 hope ; 
 
 Dear friends, you must forego 
 
 Mad Luther, Kno,'?, and Co. 
 
 And kiss the blessed toe 
 
 Of the Pope!" 
 
J52 
 
 Right merry grew the crowd. 
 
 When they heard him thus propose ; 
 And the peals, hoth long and loud, 
 
 Of wild laughter that arose, 
 Proclaimed — that Northern sense had won the day ! 
 
 And the doughty Prince of knaves, 
 
 With his retinue of slaves. 
 
 Like the tide's retiring waves, 
 Slunk away ! 
 
 Now joy, old Ulster, raise 
 
 At this triumph of thy might ; 
 And, amidst the banquet's blaze. 
 
 While the goblet shines in light, 
 And you glory in the flight of your foe ; — 
 
 Then toast your peerless Town, 
 
 With its street y'cleped " Brown," 
 
 And that place of high renown, 
 
 " Sandy-row I" 
 
 Brave hearts, to Britain tied. 
 
 That no slavery can brook ; 
 Who have battled side by side 
 
 With O'Connell-ciuelling Cgoke, 
 Bright shine the light of freedom on your home ! 
 
 And still may Ulster smile, 
 
 As a favoured Goshen, while 
 
 Thy darkness plagues our Isle, 
 
 Ltjng Rome ! 
 
 Equally pleasant and touching was the following from a man of Athens, and 
 which appeared in that right-well beloved and loyal paper The Deny Standard. \\ 
 is entitled 
 
 ANOTHER CHANT FOR THE BIG BEGGARMAN. 
 
 BY AN IRISH ATHENIAN. 
 
 Burly Dan took a notion to visit Belfast, 
 Where the Priests had all clubbed for a glorious repast. 
 And Daniel took with him his " fiddler,"* Tom Steele, 
 To hear the "gulls" shouting, " Hurrah for Repeal 1" 
 " If I blarney the North, I'll die easy," says Dan, 
 And the tiddler he winked at the Big Beggarman. 
 
 For the sake of a whole skin, Dan travelled incog. 
 
 And the fiddler sung out as they came to each bog ; 
 
 There was one hog at Banbridge, and one at Dromore, 
 
 And at Lisburn another, behind and before. 
 
 And the " boys" would have made a new Boyne of the Bann, 
 
 Had they met with the serfs of the Big Beggarman. 
 
 His ''speech" at the "meeting" was all a dumb show. 
 His head up and down, and his arms to and fro. 
 The sounds he was met with were " down with Repxle,'" 
 " No Surrender," " the Doctor," " Dan shew us your tail." 
 ♦' Thiee cheers for the Union," "three groans for King Dan, 
 The bully and coward — the Big Beggarman." 
 
 Had you stood to the fight — although drubbed you would be, 
 
 Your way had been smoother to Donaghadee ; 
 
 But your cause was not worse than the bent of your mind. 
 
 And the words of your doom are, "the chat-lenge declined," 
 
 So hurrah for the Doctor ! and down with King Dan, 
 
 The Irishman's robber, the Big Beggarman ! 
 
 * The soubriquet bestowed upon Tom Steele while in Belfast — it is supposed frona his 
 resemblance in figure to the celebrated Paganini — perhaps from his peculiar talent in draw- 
 ing the long bow, while playing second fiddle to the Chief Musiciao. 
 
153 
 
 But who remembers not the escape of Dan? Tlie whole history of the entire 
 
 proceedings of llie Repealer in Uelfast was happily epitomized by Dr. Cooke 
 
 into one sbort expressive sentence: " Thtij lied him in and swore him out.'' Such is 
 
 the burden of the following song — a lyrical chant which will enrapture the lov«rs 
 
 of poesy, and animate to additional vigour the hearts of the brave. Its author 
 
 called it 
 
 A NEW SONG, 
 
 To the old tnne — •' IVhich nohody can deny.'" 
 
 They lied him in and they swore Uini out. 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 They turned his horses round about. 
 And winked at the *' gulls" to raise a shout, 
 But silent sadness reigned throughout, 
 
 Wliich nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 They hurried him in, and closed each blind, ' 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 But the noise ot the jaunting-cars behind 
 Disturbed the great Disturber's mind. 
 That repose he sought, in vain, to finil, 
 
 Which noboily can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 The armed police by his coach did ride, 
 
 Wiiich nobody can deny. 
 Felow the bridge did Lagan glide, 
 While the tollman ilungthe gates so wide. 
 For they said a prisoner was inside, 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 Dan felt the freshness of morning air, 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 And, turning to Steele with a hungry stare, 
 " Jt Sharman's at home we might breakfast there ; 
 But the Jewel ne'er axed us, I declare," 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 They scampered along to Newtownards, 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 But the corners were posted with '' great rewardf:,'" 
 And the boys looked so queer from the cabbage -yards, 
 That Dan merely nodded his passing regards. 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 And next they came to a swelling brook, 
 
 Which nobody can deny, 
 "A brook," cries Steele, with a frightful look 
 But the angry waters echoed " Cuokk" 
 And Dan to his Paternosters took. 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 And now a crowd came slowly near, 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; — 
 Dan's knees, like Belshazar's, shook with fear. 
 And he hastily drew his pistols near, — 
 When, behold ! a funeral did appeal ! 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 Both sat depressed as men could be, 
 
 Which nobody can deny. 
 Till Steele espied the open sea — 
 "Huzza!" said he, " lor Donagh.adee! " — 
 " Hurra!" cried Dan, "and Grammachree !" 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
154 
 
 Now ratt'ie the wheels along the street. 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 But not a voice was heard to greet, 
 While Dan, like a fox in a winding sheet, 
 Twisted his tail between his feet, 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny- 
 
 And now the steamer has left the quay. 
 
 Which nobody can deny ; 
 While a Highland piper thus did play — 
 " ril gang nae mail- to yon toun /" — nay ; 
 For Repeal, in Belfast, is lost — lack-a-day ! 
 
 Which nobody can deny, deny, which nobody can deny. 
 
 Reader, hast thou ever trembled at the incantations of the "weird sisters?" 
 Flatter not thyself that the days of witchery are gone. Talk of the nineteenth cen- 
 tury indeed! No I — they play their "fantastic tricks" still in divers places and 
 sundry ways, in this " visible diurnal sphere." Are you sceptical with respect to 
 such a truism ? Look to the opposite picture, and lo ! thou art confounded. In the 
 late tragi-conr.ic Drama of Repeal, they have performed their part, which is thus- 
 visibly represented, in — 
 
 A NEW SCEINE FROM MACBETH, 
 
 (NEVER BEFORE EXHIBITED ON ANY NORTHERN STAGE.1 
 
 Scene First. — Act Last. — A dark Room in the Vindicator Office — In the middle, a 
 pot boiling — The Gulls shouting. 
 
 Enter Three Witches and Hecate, 
 
 1 W. Thrice the " gulls" have loudly roared. 
 
 2 W. Twice and once Tom Steele hath snored. 
 .3 W. Daniel cries " 't is time, 't is time." 
 
 1 W. Skin the eel, but save the slime. 
 
 Round about the boiler go : 
 In, the fell ingredients throw. 
 Pails of water, three times thres. 
 From Struel, Derg, and Urachree ; 
 And when it foams, all hissing hot, 
 Then fill up the magic pot. 
 Cast in first, of Papal Bull, 
 Hoof and horn, and tail and scull ; 
 
 2 W. Cinders three, from Scullabogue, 
 
 Hobnails nine, of Whiteboy brogue ; 
 
 3 W. Tongue of dog and snout of pig, 
 
 Curl of Dan's official wig ; 
 
 And when it foams, all hissing hot, 
 
 Sing around our magic pot. 
 
 All, Double, double, toil and trouble ; 
 Fire burn and cauldron bubble. 
 
 Hec. Cool it with Heretic blood ; 
 
 Then the charm is firm and good. 
 Turn the cock and off it goes — 
 Drink, ye "gulls" and drown your woes 
 Fly, ye post-boy, lash your nag — 
 Speed the Vindicator'' s bag ; 
 Tell of " bloody Sandy-row," 
 And the great " Pavilion" show ; 
 Of the " lovely and the good," 
 AVho in shoes and stockings stood ! 
 Of the brave Repealer throng. 
 Mustered " sixty thousand strong ;" ' 
 Of the shouts at Linen-hall, 
 Caught in dishclouts neat and small, 
 Stop not, herald ! haste away ! 
 Till you reach fair Ballintrae, 
 There, in potions deep and strong, 
 Fledge the cup with Maister .lohn. 
 
155 
 
 Wc deL'iily sympathise with our readers in the sorrow which will settle down on 
 Shcm when they find that this enjoyment is nearly done. Our songs are dying to an 
 t'clio ; our pleasing task is nearly over ; our communion with tliem in the world of 
 I'oetry is nearly dune. Verily, we feel mournfully sentimental, when we give our 
 last chant, called 
 
 THE CHIEF OF RZPALE. 
 
 The chief of Repealers came down from the South, 
 To let the North breeze cool the lie iu his mouth ! 
 And, save his assurance, he license had none 
 To blarney the boys from Coleraine to Shiurone. 
 From the rocks of the Causeway to far-famed Kiusale — ■ ■ 
 Oh ! who has not heard of the Chief of liepalc ! 
 
 He staid not at Newry, nor yet at the Bann, 
 
 And the hot smokinj; breakfast was eat without Dan! 
 
 But, ere he arrived at Rialone turnpike-gate, 
 
 The gallant repented his coming «o late ; 
 
 For he missed the loved shout of the "gulls" on the gale. 
 
 Bidding — welcome, O'Connell, high Chief of Repale ! 
 
 So slyly he stole into Kerns's hall, 
 While waiters, and helpers, and shoe-boys and all, 
 Were solemnly cautioned, by word and by look. 
 To say nothing of him — not even to (the) Cook, 
 Lest she might, iu her wrath, slip a pill in his kail 
 That would finish, for ever, the Chief of Repale ! 
 
 I long loved ^^ fair Ulster," my suit you denied. 
 And you laughed me to scorn iu your stiff Northern pride ; 
 And now I'm come here with friend Charley to dine. 
 With the " lovely and good," to drink one cup of wine, 
 For I want your fair Province attached to my tail. 
 Don't you wish I may get her, quoth he of Repale ! 
 
 The eve of the dinner beheld gallant teats : — 
 There was placing of dishes, and scouring of plates ; 
 There was crushing, and pushing, in Donegall-place, 
 But few got a glimpse of his broad Kerry face ; 
 For he kuew his fool measure hung high in the scale. 
 Over-poised by the Northerns, opposed to Repale! 
 
 But away to the dinner, where gallant M'Dovvell, 
 In the high seat of honour presides o'er the whole ; 
 Where Keenans and Dorians, O'Neills and O'Rourkes, 
 Are eagerly handling their knives and their forks. 
 And Dan's " wee dog, Charlie," sits wagging his taW, 
 As he looks on his master the Lord oi Repale ! 
 
 When Daniel had swallowed his share of the food, 
 He kissed his broad palm to the " lovely and good ;" 
 And the blarney that flowed from his tongue was as pure 
 As the stream from the Lifley, the Shannon, or Suir ; 
 lie never before kuew that blarney to fail — 
 But, alas! it was wasted great Chief of Repale ! 
 Arrah ! pray is this Ulster ? is this the black North ? 
 There is no other North that such stars can send forth ? 
 Though the hearts of the Southerns are hot as a coal — 
 But yours! — you' 1 excuse me, Sir Chairman M'Dowell, 
 If I in attempt to describe them should fail. 
 For I fear I'm unequal, quoth he of Repale ! 
 
 But why should the muse dwell on all that was said. 
 
 Small blame to you, Dan, when the reckoning was paidj 
 
 By these would-be Repealers sprung up in the North, 
 
 To call all your wit and your eloquence forth. 
 
 And shower it around you, wholesale and retail. 
 
 To stuff the " gulls" ears with the sound oi Repale I 
 
 Oh! was it a dream that O'Connell was here ? — 
 
 The shout of the "gulls" hath now died on the ear. 
 
 And the " brilliant and good," in their chambers are pent, 
 
 And the cheers, and the groans, and the hisses, are spent ; 
 
 And Daniel has left us to weep and to wail, 
 
 lyirru siriie for O'Connell high Chief of Rep/dc ' 
 
156 
 
 He cama as the wind comes, and no body knows, 
 The place that it comes from, and whither it goes ; — 
 And silent and secret they took him away, 
 For his errand was hopeless, he might not delay. 
 Then, hurrah for fair England ; with steam and with sail 
 They'll have swift ships that follow, quoth he of Rejmle. 
 
 Reader, hast thou ever luxuriated in that pleasant book and profitable witlial, the 
 sayings of Sam Slick ? We presume thou hast, and hast se«n how lie exposeth the 
 vagaries of the " most free and enlightened nation on the face of the earth." VVouldst 
 thou desire to hear his opinion about Repeal ? Here it is then. Ask. not how it 
 has been received ; but read carefully, and admire prodigiously the 
 
 NOTIONS OF SAMUEL SLICK, OF SLICKVILLE, ABOUT THE 
 REPEAL MOVEMENT. 
 
 " He put me in mind of about the meanest thing on airth — an old worn-out 'coon dog 
 barking up the wrong tree." — Autihiography of Colonel Crockett. 
 
 " Well, Squire, gettin' along by steam does beat all, that's a fact. We have had a 
 considerable deal of talkin about the wonderful works of steam-ingines in the news- 
 papers already; but a notion strikes me, that, in a year or two, it will take some of 
 our first-rate Congress men to do justice to them, by makin' speeches about what 
 steam can do every once in a while ; and you know, Squire, that some of them fel- 
 lers ought to be pretty considerable judges of that at least. However, this don't 
 much convene with what I'm goin' to tell you. Well, Squire, I was sitien by the 
 fireside, last night, and havin' been down to see cousin Woodberry, during the day, 
 and travelled a good deal about his location (and a plaguery nice thing he has of it.) 
 As I was saying I was something tired like, and had fallen into a kinder doze, when, 
 who should come runnin' into the room but a critter called Michey Mulvaney, that 
 has been about my consarn for some little time. Well, if he didn't look the very 
 picture of a curosity — it's a pity. There he was as shaggy as a Kentucky bear, busy 
 pullin* out a newspaper that he said had just come from a friend of iiis in Ireland, 
 givin*, among other things, an account of Repeal doings on the other side of the 
 water. Well, I thought I would see what it was all about ; for, says I to myself, if 
 there's nothing else in it, there will be, at least, something worth larfin at, for 
 them critters in Ireland do poke fun at one another now and again like all natur'. — . 
 So I glanced my eye over the newspaper, and what t>hould I stick at but the account 
 of" O'Connell's visit to the North to agitate Repeal." I knew already, Squire, that 
 this O'Connell was a chap who, as regards the matter of every kind of loco-focoism, 
 as we say in America, had all his eye-teeth cut a considerable while ; so says I to 
 myself, let us see what the feller does want to be at. Well, 1 begun a readin' away 
 like any thing, about the 'journey,' and the ' demonstration,' and the ' Soiree' to the 
 ' lovely and the good ;' and, in short, about a consarn that, thinks I to myself while 
 reading it, it's like nothin' in natur' that I know, but a New England pedlar's bag 
 of pewter notions, that it convenes for him to try an' make pass for silver, when he 
 gets in among some of them Ingin critters (hat don't know the differ. And sure 
 enough, Squire, the Rapeal speech of O'Connell did put one in mind of a thing that 
 happened once when I was in the Clock line down east, and that 1 won't forget for 
 one while. You see I haj)pened to be down in one of them factory locations, an' as 
 I was walkin' along by the side of a brick wall, what should 1 see pasted on it but 
 a most a flashin' advartisement, very nearly as big as a flag of the United States, all 
 kivered over with an account of a speech that was just goin' to be made by a critter 
 called Jonathan Crane. Well, the people begun to gather to hear the speech, and I 
 went along with them ; but, of all the fellers that ever made speeclies, I expect 
 this one did go a-head. He proposed that there should be a repeal right off" the reel 
 of the union between the married folks in them parts, and all, as he said, from a de- 
 sire to benefit his fellow-subjects of the most free and enlightened nation on airth 
 
 Well, what would you think. Squire, but the thing took amazingly among the most 
 of them, and so it was voted that it should be put in practice right oil", for fere that 
 the notion might spile in tliekeepin'. Tlic woman critters were sent to live by them- 
 selves, and things went on pretty considerable slick for a day or two. But it lasted a 
 
157 
 
 short time, I tell you ; for one night there did get up the most cussed racket among 
 the women. Why, Squire, I happened to be located for the night in a shingle, but 
 not far off, and such a blarting out of disturbance I never heard, exceptin' once, when 
 1 travelled among the Rocky Mountains, an' came upon a battle of 'coons, in a harri- 
 cane. It did beat all natur' — that's a fact — and it shewed that if the women critters 
 would not keep up the old union, they couldn't keep up the new one. There they 
 were a scoldin', screachin', and clamin' one another like mad, and some of them 
 swearin' that they would set fire to the whole consarn, if for nothing but to spite one 
 another. Well, Squire, Jonathan Cranes man'uvre was knocked on the head in two 
 
 twos, and the fire-edge of this kind of repeal wore ofl" before it was well put on ■ 
 
 Now, the Repeal critters in Ireland, I expect, are playin' much about the same 
 game. They want to break up a union that has brought them the most of the pros- 
 perity and true happiness that ever they have had. They want, like the cursedest 
 fools ever I heard tell of, to cut away their sheet-anchor, at the very lime that the 
 storm may be ready to blart in their very teeth, and throw them upon all dangers of 
 a lee shore. He's pretty considerable of a longheaded critter that O'Connell after all 
 — and yet it isn't clear to me, but he'll maybe yet have to snicker into his skin, and live 
 upon the fat of his old earnin', if he can, somethin', Squire, like an old skunk that 1 
 once knew trapped by his tail in the crotch of a tree. I one time took to trappin' them 
 varmint before 1 begun the clock line, and I just set my trap in that kind of slanten- 
 dicler way, tha' the bigger its tail, and the more the critter flourished it, the sooner it 
 was taken. Well, there are, I do see, some in the trappin' line in Ireland, that go 
 a-head too. There's a Preacher, Squire, that is pretty considerable at the business, 
 and that is not easy to be outwitted by the cunninest vaimint that ever carried a tail 
 — that's a fact. Well, I read in the newspaper that this Preacher challenged O'Con- 
 nell to discuss the question of Repeal. That he offered to meet him, face to face, 
 for any time and any where, but O'Connell was too knowin a crilter to come within 
 rifle-shot of such a first-rate hunter. It's my opinion. Squire, that, if he had done so, 
 this Preacher would have gone into him like a flash of lightcnin* into a goose- 
 berry bush. I expect he would have catawampously chawed him up while you would 
 say two twos. It's a great thing, Squire, to have a good cause and a good hand to 
 plead it. It's a great thing to have a skilful hand to set the trap, and to set it where 
 the real varmint may fall into it. I tell you what, Squire, that Preacher chap was 
 up to clock-makin' — he set his time-piece by the sun, and stopped the main-spiing 
 of O'Connell's movements. 
 
 Thanks to the Penny Postage, Rowland Hill, and to our worthy friend John 
 Hill, who has favoured us with the following letters of his Scottish correspondent 
 James Anderson, of Ballintrae, We have been always anxious to hear his scniinicnts 
 on men and things in general : and therefore are we proud in being enabled to give 
 our readers his opinion touching the late exhibition of Repeal, nathless it siiould be 
 in that dialect, wliich to somemay be difficult to decipher. Re so good, however, 
 reader, as not to pass [slightly over our friend's lucubrations ; and we promise, tliat 
 when you have done, you will be at a loss to decide between the superiority of the 
 masculine vigour of the sentiments, or the Doric simplicity of the style. 
 
 FROM JAMES ANDERSON, OF RALLINTRAE, TO MR. JOHN 
 HILL, BOOKSELLER, BELFAST. 
 
 Dear John — Dinna ye think that a woman is maistly wiser nor a man? 1 can 
 tell ye, lad, its my opinion at ony rate, an' I'll gie ye the reason — I ne'er gae wrang 
 while I follow Leezy's advice, an' I sometimes blunder when I tak' my ain. Noo*^ 
 
 wits they hae, is mair exerceesed nor a man's, wha aften depends mair on the streen^th 
 o' his arm, nor on the soundness o' his head. Noo, I'll tell ye, John, what has led meln- 
 til a' this pheelosophy. Twa-three months sync, I was purposed to sen'ane o' our wee 
 chaps to the schule, and was cxpressin' my th'anks for the neighbourhood o' sae learned 
 a dominie, whan Leezy says to me, ne'er mind the dominie; but tell me what kind o^ 
 ushers has he got. Dinnayemind the Laird o' Grumphy? Didna his very servant-lasses 
 look as sour as vinegar ? An' didua his very tykes strain their jaws and weary their 
 thrapples wi' perpetual girniii' an' barkin', an' gif a' about him was inftcked wi' iiis ain 
 ill nature ? An' dinna yc mind the big hoosc i' the park, whar baith maister an'scrvantS; 
 
158 
 
 ihe leddy an' tbc weans, a'thcgcthcr, seemed sae happy, and was sae kind ? Ay, man, 
 wadna the muckle tyke frae Newfoundlan' wag his tail, an' leuk up i' yer face wi' a 
 welcome amaist as wise leukin an' as kind as gin he had been a human creatnre ? — 
 Look ye, then, till the ushers, Jamie. Sic tyke, sic maister, sic ushers, sic dominie; 
 noo, what's the moral o' a' this clishraaclaver ? Bide a wee, Johnnie, an' ye sail 
 hear. Ye ken baith yoursel' an' my frien's i' the high toon o' Carmony, hae been 
 lang urgin' me tae come our on a veesit. Weel, at last, ye ken, I did come ; an' 
 what baith o' joy an' sorrow we had in our meetin' I'll n j repeat it here. We had 
 joy, Johnnie, for we were levin, an' some o' us Provideui e had prospered fjr beyond 
 our expectin' or deservin'; an' we had our so-rows Johnnie, for they were gone wha 
 wad hae shared in our joy, an' we had a feelin' o' laneliness in our company, because 
 there was some in our thoughts that was na at our table. But it's the way an' the 
 will o' Providence, wha wisely an' mercifully mixcs the sweet with the bitter — the 
 ane for our comfort, an' the ither for our correcti m — an' he is aye the happiest man 
 wha taks o' baith wi' humility an' thankfu'ness. 
 
 Whaes me, Johnnie ; I dinna ken how it dappens, but there's a pleasure in bein' 
 sad. But I'm rinnin away fiae my story, wliich was fairly to confess that, for a' tlie 
 guide will I bear to yoursel' an' Carmoney lolk, ye wadna at this time hae seen my 
 face, but that I wussed to get asyght o' tiiei^reat O'Connell, an' judge o'iJepca^e^'s an' 
 Repeal wi' my ain lugs an' een. I intende 1, as Leezy advised, to judge o' the "mais- 
 ter by the ushers — an' try what O'Connell wad be at by a blink o' the bodies at his 
 tail.'' Besides, yer auld neebor, Maisti r John Sinelar, fairly banned me, inlil a 
 promise that I sud go — for he swoor, a id he swoor again, that O'Connell was the 
 greatest man on the yirth — that he wad hae a body-guard o' 9J,000 men frae Con- 
 naught ; an' tha^ he wad carry Repeal i n Parliament, as easily as he could shoot a 
 patrick or a moorfowl. Weel, gang I did gang — an' I wadna trouble ye wi' what I 
 lieard or saw at the great street meetin', had O'Connell's body-guard allowed you 
 to stay ; but, as I weel remember, ye w r glad to make yoursel' scarce, as the chiel, 
 wi' the muckle nieve admonished ye, sae I think it weel tae gie ye twa three notes o' 
 what happened after yer retreat. Weil, ye'U think it odd, Johnnie, but it's true 
 that whan I leuked at O'Connell mouiUed on the liggin' o' the hoose, au' a' the 
 Priests an' Maister Sinelar aside him, the first thing can^e intil my head was a 
 picter I had seen o' an elephant wi' a mujkle creel on his back, an' a dozen or twa o" 
 men in it. Niest I thought it a kind o' emblem o' Repeal it:^el', and wliat they ca' 
 " Papish ascendancy ;'' for, as to the Rei ual part, O'Connell an' his folk didna cum 
 in by the door, but head-foremost throug'i the winnock, an' the " ascendancy" might 
 weel be seen, for he wadna bide within ae hoos, but maun mount the riggin o'anither. 
 But what, think ye, I thocht o' niest? Just o' Tim Corr (ye remember Tim, man, 
 wasna he the picter ?) wi' his great muckle body, an' his ragged coat, an' bis dirty 
 face, an' his curley head, an his breast as ro jgh as a water spaniel, an' his long keat, 
 an' his iaziness — for he wad beg an' eat, I ut he wadna work — like some ithcr folk 
 that O'Connell kens o' — an' then wi' a' his perfect daftness, the body had sic glini- 
 merin's o' wisdom, that money's the time I hae wondered how sae muckle sense 
 could sometimes spring frae sic a fountain o madness an' folly. Noo, the reason I 
 thocht o' Tim was this : — Ye remember tht '98. Weel, Tim, in his ain imagina- 
 tion, an' by common consent o' a' jokemakers. was a Crappy General. But, at last, 
 cam pike-time; an' as a party o' pikemen was hurryin' aloHg to the toon to fecht, 
 Tim met them gaen the ither way. What! Ciied ane o' the Crappies, what! Gene- 
 ral, are ye no to lead yer men i' the battle. Na, na, he's no for that, quo Tim 
 
 Why, General, quo the daffin Crappy, dinna ya see a' yer men afore ye? Ha, ha, 
 quo Tim, wi' that curious dookin o' iiis hea 1 atweeu his shouthers that ye canna 
 forget — ha, ha, quo Tim, he heard tlie de'il | layin' a' tune, an' sees a' the folk dan- 
 cin' till't. An' never sin' the world began was there a truer description o' the O'Con- 
 nell fiddle an' the Repeal dance. An' noo, Johnnie, I propose, as they wadna let 
 ye bide at the meetin', tae gie ye some inklm o' twa or three o' the dancers. 
 JNly Queen's head will carry nae mair paper, but ye'U sune hear frae me again. 
 
 Youis, in a' kindness, 
 
 JAMES ANDERSON. 
 Ballintrae, N.B , 1st Febiuary, I8U. ^ 
 
 To Mr. John Hill, Bookseller, in Donegall-sticet, Belfast. ^ 
 
LETTER ir. 
 
 DtAR .hins, — Did you ever read " Tarn o Sliaiitcrr ffsao, yell romcmi)er \io\r 
 lie saw niuang tlic wiiclics, 
 
 " A wiiinock hiinkar i' tiio oast. 
 Whaur '<at auld Nick in shape n" heast. 
 A toiizie tyke, Ijlack. iirim, an' large. 
 To !;ie them music was his char^^e ; 
 NVha screwed his pipes, and i;;art them skirl, 
 '1 ill root' an' ral'ters a' did dirl."' 
 
 An' blieve me, Johnnie, v linn T thought o' Tim Corr an' the Dell fiddlin', an' a' the 
 folk dancin' tac the miisii.t o' rel)ellioii, — whilk ye ken isjnst a cccvil name for roiihery 
 and hloodshed, — an" \vhan I 'euked at O'Coniiell encompassed by lanjr Bah, an' auld 
 John, like iwa prciited picters o' death upon wires — an' whan I saw a' the ither clau- 
 jamtry mounted wi' him on the riirgin' o a hoosc — an' whan I heard him screcdin 
 up Repeal ; but abune a' whau I heard Ijim p'ayin' till the tunoo' leeberty, c(|uality, 
 toleration, an charitv — just impcrted frae Rome ; and whan I saw the loupin' an 
 flingin' o' the crcaters he had set a dancin' — I couldna but suspcc' he had borrow'd 
 Tim's fiddle or Tarn's pipes, sae tcnible "as the row, an' the racket he iiroduced. 
 Ay, ay, John, that was the row ! Ai;' what wi' Tam Steele shakin' his nieve at the 
 Protestants, an' them laugliin" back in iiis face ; what wi' a great muckle Priest 
 girnin' an' roarin' ; an' wliat wi' 0'Conn.dl liimsel — for I heard him wi'my ain lugs 
 — threatcnin' the Papishcs if tliey wadna shout; an' what wi' the tootin' o' a lang 
 tin horn that a chiel blew wi' a' the might an' main o' a coachman ; an' what wi' the 
 skirlin' o' wliustles, whilk seemed innumera de; an' what wi' the ofFerins o' pennies 
 tae O'Connel on the tap o' clifted sticks; an' the grainin' — whilk is a soun' maist 
 horrible — an' the ridin" o' jioleesh, an' the in iversal rampagin an' stramish — never 
 Johnnie, since the warl' began was there aught tae compare wi't unless, mayhap, the 
 confusion o' tongues at Babel, o' whilk, I suspt c', the Repeal tae be just a kind o' 
 Eerish imitation. 
 
 The first o' the Cabelonians that I sail menti m was Mr. John Sinclar, frae our 
 town o' Ballintrae. An' there was he sittin' on a muckle creepy, whilk they ca'd a 
 chair, wi' his shouthers a' hurkled thegither like the half hoop o' an auld herrin 
 barrel, an' the haill figer o' the body, for a' the warld like a clockin hen upon a 
 bauk. It just vext nie to see the auld body — for he's a kindly creater — it just vext 
 me tae see him makin' sic a' guse o' liimsel'. An' then sic a freezin' as he got, 
 l)erched upon the riggin o' the hoose, on a caul 1 winter's day, like unto a scait, ui 
 sea-maw restin' on a rock after a day's fisliin.' Ay, a sair, sair, freezin' he had tae 
 Stan' — for whan I could hear naethin" for the <iioutin' an'-gutFawin, I just slippit 
 roun' till the door o' the Inns, an' whan a gawsy-leukin' body that might be the head 
 w-aitcr. or sic like, pusht me out, I just mu nbled ower a screed o' Eerish I had 
 learned frae a' '^tane- breaker o' the name o' Flanagan, wha worked on the new turn- 
 pike frae the Port, an' in I got in a glilF, an' made my way to Maister John's aiu 
 lug. An' there l;e was sittin', wi' his nose fi jblue as indigo, an as cauld as an icicle, 
 an' his teeth chatterin' in his head like br.ies in a dice-box, or a runaway naig an' 
 cairt on a new macamized high ro.ad. T le niest to lead alf the dance, was just as it 
 sud bed, the Laird o' TuUochgorum [qi ery, Killy-Gordon ?] Weel, up he starts, 
 as blythe as a birkie leuking for a parr ler at a penny-weddin'. But whan he showed 
 lis head !— wow, John, but he was r perfect curosity. He was an auld wizened 
 body. In fac, the Repealers seem v be a" auld and wizened — save and except O'Con- 
 nell liimsel', wha seems tae live on nae deaf nits. But, as^l was sayin", this TuUoch- 
 gorimi was an auld wizened bodv, but for want o' a better, theelappit him up tae speak. 
 An' when he gat forret to tlip edge o' the roof, he first stickit his twa nieves intil his 
 twa hinches, and leukt for a the warld like ane o' Leezzy's skivert rabbits — syne he 
 pappit his bans intil the pockets o' his brceks — syne drew ane o' them out, an' fast- 
 ened it atween his knees — then threw !)ack his head, and maist upset baith Maister 
 
 John and lang Bab then shot his head forret like a lint-beetlcr's mell — an' apened 
 
 his mouth, an' gauched an' ganched maist awfu' ; an" never i' my days did I see the 
 model o the boiiv, except a brock in a barrel a fechtia wi' a terrier. 
 
 But the sicht o" sichts was his seconder, a chiel they ca'd lang Bab, wha studahint 
 O'Connell, for a the warld like the Ilollywud maypoul wi' a whin bush for a he.ad 
 on't. Sre lang, an' skrimpit i" the middle, an' starved like, just as gif he had come 
 frae doiii' a months penance for O'Connell's lees, at Stroul, or Lough Derg._-An" 
 mavbe after a', frcen Johnnie, the thoclit u' annointin, an absolution at the liinner 
 
16(1 
 
 end, may hno mair inflnenpc lliati tlicy just like to mention nwev Knme o' tlie frcon 
 o" Ileiieal. But och I ocli ! man, what a broken reed o' lO^rypl ! Alter ilirec score 
 years nn' ten, in uliilk l)annin was eked to hannin, tae cxpcc jiardon lor ten ponnds 
 wortli o' mumbled masses, an' a priest's passport tliroiirjli a liealhenish iJurtraiorv. 
 
 Nicst came a camstarie o' a chop, ca'd Dillon IJrovyne, fre C<)nnau;ilii, wlia dan- 
 ced wi' acliiel caM iM'Kittcrty, frae Newtonards, — ye'll mind '■^ Kilter tij," lie was a 
 droll l)ody that, nn' I'm snspeckin this mann be some relation o' the family. 1 coultla 
 Icuk on the body without thinkin' on an auld lioose, whnr tlie maist lieht cams in 
 throu;jh the cracks o' the roof. lUit losh man, iiad you seen him ! how he rairM an 
 stampit, an' whap|)it, an' slappit Ids loof .aijain his sides, an" shot out his nose like the 
 licit u' a pcccgin' awl ; an' sae raved about blood an' thunncr, and peats, tint sic 
 nonsense ne'er was bcgatten, since or afore. Mr. John Icukt bluer an' bluer — lonp; 
 Uab grained inwardly-^nn' (yConnell bit his nctlier lip wi' vexation — while the 
 chiels i' the street shouted " awa tae yc'r tape;" an' the puir body slank awa. like 
 a tyke wi' his tail bitten afl', in what our dominie facetiously ca's a " dopomachy." 
 IJiit, man-o-nian, noist came a priest they ca'd Welsh, frae somowhar about the 
 Island o' Uaghery, as they lell't me. Nae mortial o' a' the llepealers afore him 
 coidd ever hear his ain voice wi' hisaiu lugs; sac terrible was the racket ; but when 
 I'ricst Welsh let alT, I question mucklo if ever lloarin i\Ieg gaed sic a brattlc; I 
 amaist ooiiped owcr llic roof wi' the fright ; an' 1 susjicc he maun hae been studyiii' 
 his speech, cither at the clunk hole o' Portstewart, or Macswines gun, in a storm. 
 l\lan-o-maii, how he did rave about absentees! — sac that, I sup))ose, when O'Con- 
 nell becomes king, nae man will be permitted tae hac lands in twa kingdoms — that 
 will be fine! But ilka anc mann spend a' his cash on his ain property. There 
 must nane hac estates in twa countries, for nae man can lecve in twa countries at 
 ancc — that'll be better still. Then comes twa parishes, then twa looidan's, an', 
 after lliat, I'm maybe thinkin', twa farms ! Aye, aye, Joimnie, lad, that will be 
 the lime wlian priests will get pickins ! In fac, gin it war na for the tenlli com- 
 vumd, I beliere I wad turn Repealer mysel'. But, maybe, Priest Welsh would just 
 obleege baith himsel' an' ither expectants sac far, that, as he has struck out the 
 eacorul a:icin imajjef, sac lie wail strike out the tenth command anent covetcousness ; 
 an' then, but not till then, wull J join him in a loud liurra for llejteal ! 
 
 ()' the march till Donaghadee, an' the terrible frightcnin the Repealers gat wi' 
 the funeral, I sail naething at tliis present wrilin. An' in respect o' the story o' 
 the piper playin — " We'll gang nae mair to yon toiui,'' tiiere's a sma' error 1 man 
 crave leeberty to correct, Atwccn you an' mc, Johnnie, the truth o' the matter is just 
 this: as the Repealers were coming out o* the inns, I just steppct doon alang side 
 o' them, whuslin in a low kind o' way the tune ca'd the Rogues March — the whilk 
 Tarn Steele an' Dillon Browne baith seemed tae recognise, an' baith grun their 
 teeth and shuck their neives at me; but I just wiiustled on till I saw O'Connell 
 aboard the packet — an' then I changed my note an' and screeded out right loudly — 
 " We'll gang nae mair to yon toun." Tliat's just the fac o' the matter. liut 
 there was nae piper. O' the vage an' the carriage business at Portpatrick, wi' my 
 puir deliberat opinion o' O'Connell himsel, ye sal hear mair sune. 
 
 Yours, in a' kindness, 
 
 JAMES ANDERSON. 
 Ballintiae, N.B., 2nd Feb., 1841. ^ 
 
 To ]\Ir. John Hill, Bookseller, Donegall- street, Belfast; \ 
 
 THE TAIL PIECE. 
 
BOSTON COLLEGE 
 
 3 9031 01275231 7 
 
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